Five London hospitals have banded together and signed a £3m
contract with US banking and healthcare specialist Mysis to deliver
a new pathology IT system.
The move highlights two growing trends in public sector IT, first a
clear shift towards purchasing off-the-shelf products. This is a
key part of the National Health Service Information Authority's
strategy for modernising NHS IT, and the Misys product has already
been deployed to 1,200 sites worldwide.
The second trend, encouraged by the Office of Government Commerce,
is for organisations to collaborate to win economies of scale from
suppliers.
In Derbyshire, for example, five local councils last week announced
the formation of a consortium to purchase a single revenues and
benefits system, rather than attempt to build their own.
The London hospitals deal will see Misys provide a single pathology
system to Hammersmith, Charing Cross, Chelsea & Westminster,
Queen Charlotte's and St. Mary's hospitals.
Misys will replace six existing systems with a single IT
infrastructure across the five sites that will interface with three
hospital trust patient administration systems.
The government's Invest to Save Fund provided core funding for the
implementation, which will begin next month.