Software: Electronic Patient Record

Single supplier - technical reasons

The Authority considers that there is an absence of competition for technical reasons for this contract and only this supplier is capable of meeting the Authority's needs for the next four years and therefore is permitted to make the award under Schedule 5(6) of the Procurement Act 2023 (PA23).

Due to the circumstances set out below, the Authority also considers that also, or in the alternative, the exemption at Schedule 5(7) PA23 would apply as the services being

procured are a replacement for the current IT system provided by this supplier where a change in supplier would result in incompatibility with the existing systems and this difference would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation.

This supplier is the incumbent supplier for the Authority under three contracts which are due to expire; but the supplier is also the incumbent supplier for North Bristol Trust (NBT) under

a ten year agreement which cannot be terminated in the short term. UHBW and NBT are in the process of moving to a managed group structure. This will mean shared executive and

operational services with shared senior management and personnel. For the following reasons the leadership of both Trusts are satisfied it is vital to maintain a shared system for

the term: seamless patient care and data sharing; integrated workflows; cost Efficiencies; regulatory and compliance alignment; improved staff efficiency; scalability and

futureproofing; single managed services; strategi c alignment; and effective referral management.

Disproportionate technical difficulties would arise from not having the same EPR including but not limited to: fragmented patient data- gaps in medical history if records incomplete; no

real time access to patient information via a unified view; manual transfer of patient information between each EPR, adding significant cost and causing delays in diagnosis and

treatment; repeat administrative tasks on both EPR's; increased costs - maintaining two systems, support, training, environments, integrations from all suppliers providing EPR's.

Interfaces for data exchange can be expensive, complex and would require suppliers working together on common interface protocols; higher risk of errors; clinicians may struggle to

reconcile conflicting information from different systems; staff will be required to learn different systems can create inconsistencies as to how patient care is documented. Separate systems make it harder to achieve a fully integrated care pathway - reducing efficiencies and driving up costs.

The Authority intends to align both contract opportunities so that they can be re-procured in due course as a single contract opportunity.