Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has awarded a £4million contract to Softcat plc to be the new device partner for the trust which will support the opening of its newest hospital.

The new contract will cover the opening and running of the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital, a 640-bed hospital set to open later this month. By working with Softcat, Liverpool hopes to provide a seamless experience for its end users.

The IT infrastructure solutions and service provider will deliver end-user devices, peripherals, pre-staging, deployment, engineering and recycling services.

Dr Jason Bincalar, chief information officer at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Providing the best patient and staff experience at the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital was the driving force for the partnership with Softcat.

“The trust needed an innovative way to equip the new hospital without compromising the high-quality service that our digital team provides at our existing hospital sites. Sharing this challenge with Softcat and leveraging their full technology life cycle service has proved to be the best approach.”

Softcat will be joining a number of other partners working with the trust to deliver modern health-specific solutions. By working as an extension of the trust’s digital services delivery team, Softcat can help Liverpool meet the current demands and challenges it faces.

Softcat was awarded the device contract following a competition via the Health Trust Europe (HTE) ICT Solutions Framework (Commit 2 – Complete IT) – a framework offering a broad scope of ICT to support organisations with their procurement requirements in an efficient and cost-effective way.

Adam Rice, public sector director at Softcat, said: “Softcat plc is delighted to be working with the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to support the organisation in achieving true digital transformation.”

He continued: “NHS Trusts are being challenged by the need to transform the way they deliver care, while continuing to manage unprecedented demand. By helping trusts harness the power of technology, we enable them to meet the challenge head-on and improve outcomes, and patient and employee experiences.”

At the end of last year, the trust was selected for NHSX’s Digital Aspirant Plus (DA+) programme’s EPR Accelerator Project for Acute Trusts project, designed to foster innovation in electronic patient records.