West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust has signed a five year contract with CGI worth approximately £25.5m to replace its “aging” infrastructure.
The contract will see CGI develop an infrastructure and service management programme to support staff across the trust’s three hospitals in Watford, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead, as well as at smaller sites throughout west Hertfordshire.
The outcome-based contract is intended to deliver more reliable and robust IT services and support, including faster networks, improved telephone systems and increased IT security.
Lisa Emery, the trust’s chief information officer, told EHI the trust identified the need for an infrastructure upgrade in its IM&T strategy produced a couple of years ago.
“We’ve had a number of years of historical underinvestment in our IT – it’s aging, old, and it doesn’t support giving clinicians the quick access to data that they need.”
Emery said the network upgrade will involve setting up wireless internet access across all three hospitals.
There are also plans to look into instant messaging and videoconferencing solutions to improve communication between staff and allow them to work in the community and across the different sites.
“It’s about freeing up people to work in a more agile way and giving people the right tools to work across different areas.”
Emery said CGI is also providing a clinical data repository to give a single view into clinical systems and access to the trust’s electronic patient record.
A new 24-hour help desk for nurses, doctors and other staff with IT issues is also being established as part of the contract, while new or upgraded PCs, laptops, tablets and other electronic devices will also be issued to staff that need them.
Emery said the trust will be transitioning from its major infrastructure and help desk contracts to CGI over the next two to three months, while it continues to develop its infrastructure priorities with clinicians and other staff. The upgrades should be completed by the end of 2015, she said.
Samantha Jones, the trust’s chief executive, said in a statement that the contract is “great news” for staff and patients and will improve the use of IT across the hospitals.
“The investment we are making to update our technology and improve our IT services will without doubt help us to deliver better and safer care for our patients.
“Our plans will radically overhaul the way we use IT across our hospitals and the benefits are wide reaching, including speeding up the time we are able to see and treat our patients.”
The trust employs about 4,500 staff and volunteers and has about 600,000 patients a year across its three hospitals.