Find a TenderAwarded without competition
Published 23 Feb 2024, 16:27 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

EMIS WEB GPSoC Lot 2 services

Official notice

Authority: Business Services Organisation I T S

ServicesAward procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Awarded value£897,214published contract · exc. VAT
Awarded 11 Mar 2024no call for competition
Awarded to Egton Medical Information Systems Limited 32 awards

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The services required are:

  • Hardware Support and Maintenance: Remote and on-site hardware support of the server, desktops, laptops, script printers, label printers, colour printers and scanners located in EMIS WEB GP Practices. This includes the management of an ICT estate of 14,856 devices across the 196 practices ensuring that the hardware receives the necessary patching and security upgrades to ensure ongoing compatibility with the EMIS WEB system and compliance with Cyber Security obligations. The supply and installation of ICT Hardware replacement consumable parts that are outside the 3 year warranty also comes under this remit.
  • Envisage Support and Maintenance: Remote and on-site software and hardware support of the EMIS Envisage Patient Call and Information Display systems

From September 2024, EMIS will commence a migration project involving the migration of 118 GP Practices from another clinical system. It is expected that 30 migrations will be completed in 2024/25 and the remaining 88 migrations to take place in 2025/26. It is essential to ensure that the BSO have a facility to order the essential LoT2 support services from EMIS for these additional practices in event that these services are not yet available on the NHS England Catalogue to order via the NI GPDCS Framework.

Note that the annual maintenance/servicing costs and consumable costs includes provision for these additional practices, to migrate during 2024/25 and 2025/26, on a pro rata basis

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1GP Practices depend upon IT systems and services to deliver their services to their…Awarded

GP Practices depend upon IT systems and services to deliver their services to their patients. Without IT, practices would depend upon manual processes and that would very significantly impact on the ability of the 196 EMIS WEB practices to provide GMS services.

196 Practices use the EMIS WEB clinical system to access patient histories, record consultations, issue prescriptions and maintain electronic patient records within their practice. These GP IT Clinical Systems then also interface electronically with other HSC systems - E.g. lab results, radiology reports, registration links, Emergency Care Summary, Key Information Summary, Electronic Document Transfer, GPIP etc.

The hardware required to access and update patient records on the EMIS WEB Clinical System must be supported and maintained to ensure continued availability as well as compliance with the latest security patches to prevent cyber security issues.

GP Practices also utilise Envisage Patient Call and Information Display systems so that GP Practice staff or the clinician do not have to spend significant time manually calling the patients when the clinician is ready to see them.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Procedure method
Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Legal basis
CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Awarded without competition
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Direct award (no call for competition)
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
23 Feb 2024, 16:27 GMT
Last source update
11 Mar 2024, 12:08 GMT
FTS notice number
2024/S 000-007660
Classification (CPV)
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
Delivery area
Northern Ireland (UKN)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-043ca6 Find a Tender
Why no open competition

The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons

Published justification

Currently there are 196 NI GP practices using the EMIS Web GP clinical system for patient management. The current contract for the support of these systems will expire on 31st March 2024.

That contract enables the provision and support of the EMIS Web system to those 196 practices. There is a yearly support fee per practice payable to EMIS as they provide support to the practices for the EMIS Web system. This is similar to the model in other countries (England, Scotland and Wales). Where the EMIS Web system is supplied to practices, it is EMIS who directly provide the support to practices as well.

EMIS have dedicated application support teams, technical support teams, Data Centre support teams and account management teams for the EMIS Web application in Northern Ireland. This specialist knowledge and relationship ensures NI practices are maximising their EMIS Web application and system availability is maintained for practices from within their Data Centres.

For a 3rd party to be contracted to provide application, hosting, technical and account management support for EMIS Web in NI, would present a significant risk to the 196 GP practices. The experience of the current EMIS support teams for their EMIS Web product has been built up over a period of time that in turn provides the required level of service, as per the NI GPSoC contract, to the 196 GP practices in NI. There is no other support provider that can provide this service without first having to build the relevant knowledge in order to provide the required support services to the practices. As continued access to the GP clinical information system is vital for the delivery of GP services, the 196 GP practices would be subject to disruption with a change in support provider, undoubtedly affecting the service the practices can then deliver to their patients.

To enable the EMIS Web system to meet the needs of the 196 practices, it must interoperate with other specific hardware and software - such as patient check-in and patient call systems.

Hardware and software must be compatible with EMIS Web if it is to function correctly. The technical support of this hardware and software provided by anyone other than EMIS introduces significant risk of failure and disruption to practices due to the specific interoperability between the hardware and the EMIS Web system. .

Further, EMIS is currently responsible for the EMIS Web system and for the specific hardware and software. The responsibility for resolving any issues of interoperability between these components rests solely with EMIS. The technical support of such hardware and software by an additional 3rd party, with limited or no technical knowledge of the EMIS WEB System configuration, would introduce risk and uncertainty into the support process where it is likely that both suppliers would blame each other for any failures, so delaying resolution and prolonging disruption to practices.

This pairing of EMIS Web with the specific hardware and software is in place in the 196 practices. To ensure that the equipment continues to operate as intended, the supply of replacement hardware consumable components, as well as relevant engineering services, is required. The supply of incompatible components or the provision of engineering services by non EMIS engineers significantly increases the risk of failure and prolonging disruption to practices.

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast
Awards 2
Awarded value £897,2141 contract exc. VAT · 1 repeated publication of the same award counted once
Bids received 1
Contracts signed 2latest 11 Mar 2024
Awarded toValueDateStatus
Egton Medical Information Systems Limited 3£897,214 †same award published again · counted once—Awarded
Egton Medical Information Systems Limited 3£897,214 †—Awarded

Contracts

Bid statistics published by the authority

BidsSMEVCSEValid bid range
1bids———

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Business Services Organisation I T S

Contracting authorityBody governed by public lawHealth James House 2-4 Cromac Avenue, BELFAST, Northern Ireland, BT3 7JDContact name, email, phone

Dispute resolution & review bodies

  • Business Services OrganisationReview body Belfast

Bidders & participating suppliers

1 commercial party on the notice

Official documents & specifications

Official links; attachments are not copied

No document links were published on the notice.