Scotland gets serious about mobile

The Scottish government is creating a national framework worth up to £60m to provide the NHS and other public bodies with notebook and tablet computers.

A tender placed in the Official Journal of the European Union is for the provision of notebook and tablet computing as well as accessories and services associated with the deployment of these devices.

The duration of the framework agreement will be 15 months with an option to extend for up to two further 12-month periods. The value of a full 39-month contract would be between £27m and £60m.

Lot one is for notebooks and tablets. It is worth £15m – £30m and will be available for use by educational bodies.

Lot two, worth £12m – £30m, is for a range of tablet devices and will be available to health boards and other public sector bodies.

Director of e-health in Lanarkshire Robin Wright said the key to adoption of ICT in clinical settings is to ensure that the human-computer interface is “appropriate and intuitive.”

“In this regard the move towards greater mobility based on mobile devices is inevitable,” he explained.

“In NHS Lanarkshire, and elsewhere in NHS Scotland, mobile devices are being explored for deployment in both acute and community settings.”

The community system developed by NHS Scotland – MiDIS – is being made ‘tablet ready’ and will be the first major test of such devices for community nursing staff, Wright added.

This will enable "tangible improvements" in the way community nurses access and record information. Tenders or requests to participate in the framework must be received by 15 January 2013.