The UK National Health Service (NHS) enacts the national framework agreement to seek bids for the provision and support of electronic patient records (EPR) for ambulance trusts, according to Digital Health. In partnership with the National Ambulance Procurement Board, the East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub has launched an invitation to tender. EPRs will be procured by UK ambulance services through the framework agreement.
The tender notice sets out the intended benefits including: working in partnership with Ambulance Services in the UK to aggregate spend; driving cash, releasing savings for reinvestment in front-line services; improving processes for staff in terms of accessing products and services they require; contributing to improvements in patient care; and supporting efficient handover of care to other providers.
It adds: “The contracting authorities (ambulance trusts) wish to procure an integrated electronic patient care record (ePCR) system for the ambulance services across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Isle of Wight. The system will be available to the ambulance services who may wish to replace the current system and other associated paper based processes, exploiting the technological advantages an electronic system can provide with integration with hardware installation or cloud services to other organisations.”
A two-year EPR framework agreement may be extended by two, one-year periods.