Barts Health NHS Trust has appointed Capgemini in a three-year framework agreement to help modernise the trust’s IT estate through cloud.

Under the agreement, Capgemini will support the Trust’s digital transformation, delivering cloud services across multiple providers to all five hospitals within the trust.

Following a tender process Capgemini was selected to help Barts Health with end to end cloud services, including assessment and migration of mission critical workloads to multiple cloud providers, ongoing management and security solutions.

Sarah Jensen, CIO, Barts Health Trust, said: “As Barts Health continues its ambitious journey to modernise the technology solutions it provides to staff and patients, we look forward to this next important strategic step with our chosen partner Capgemini.

“With their existing experience in providing cloud hosting services and digital transformation solutions to the NHS, we are excited about the journey we have started together and are confident our partnership will continue to add value in our ever-challenging environment which ultimately leads to better care for patients.”

The use of cloud in the NHS appears to be on the rise with national guidance for health and care organisations considering cloud services for storing patient information being issued in January 2018.

The document outlines a framework for assessing and managing risk around the use of public cloud technologies in the health and social care sectors in England, including legalities around how data should be stored and used and considerations to be made by organisations when choosing a supplier.

Matt Howell, head of public sector at Capgemini in the UK, said the company was “delighted” to be chosen by Barts Health to help with its digital transformation by revamping its ICT services.

“As the largest NHS Trust, and one of the pioneers in taking a step towards modernising its IT infrastructure through migrating the services to the cloud, the trust will benefit from a more secure, scalable and agile operating environment that is more cost effective than current legacy IT infrastructure,” he added.

“The move is a testimony to the Trust’s innovation to offer a better experience for patients and reinforces Capgemini’s commitment to the NHS and the healthcare sector in the UK.”