By selecting to directly award a contract to InterSystems for a period of 5-years, H&W CCG deems that it best services the needs of the H&W STP through:
— building on investment already made by partners in H&W STP as agreed for the ICWR programme
— maintaining strategic alignment with patient flows into Birmingham, strategic organisational alignment for Wye Valley NHS Trust and the West Midlands West Midlands Local Health and Care Record Exemplar (LHCRE) programme
— shortening the time for implementation by building on existing cloud infrastructure and the experience gained by the neighbouring STPs
— sharing cloud costs between H&W STP, Coventry and Warwickshire STP and Birmingham and Solihull STP to reduce costs for all and to make the solution more financially sustainable.
The technical reasons why competition is absent are:
I. Work has already been successfully completed to share data with the NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham to support the transfer of patient care to a specialist Covid-19 treatment centre as part of the initial Covid-19 pandemic response, using the InterSystems solution that is common both to providers in H&W STP and in NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham.
II. The strategic approach to the development of an ICWR is to build on the existing investment in systems already in use that can be extended across the whole of the H&W STP. This approach was agreed by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Digital Board earlier this year.
III. H&W STP has significant patient flows for tertiary services into Birmingham and Solihull STP, which has already selected InterSystems to deliver its integrated record solution.
IV. Wye Valley NHS Trust, which is a partner organisation within H&W STP, is part of a group of hospitals that are based in Coventry and Warwickshire STP which has also selected InterSystems to deliver its integrated record solution.
V. The continued strong partnerships working between Herefordshire and Worcestershire and in particular NHS Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust with University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, who similarly are part of the Birmingham and Solihull STP.
VI. The current Covid-19 pandemic response, the restoration of services and the increasing likelihood of a second wave in the lead into Winter 2020 is an increasingly urgent pressure on the transformation of services. Health and care services need to be delivered safely and effectively while maintaining current social distancing and other measures designed to reduce viral transmission. The H&W STP has already recognised that the transformation of services is dependent on an ICWR both in its Long-Term Plan and its associated Digital Strategy.
VII. Finally, the H&W STP is a partner in the West Midlands LHCRE programme and any local ICWR must be compatible with this programme.
