Information technology services

Tender description

The NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, hosted by Velindre NHS Trust are acting on behalf of Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board who are seeking to establish a contract for Eye-Care Digitisation for NHS Wales. The need for a digital record for eye care is well recognized in the UK and internationally as a requirement for modern ophthalmic care. Hospital based ophthalmology is second only to radiology in its use of images to manage patient care and it is the second highest volume outpatient service. Eye care digitisation supports NHS Wales’s strategic direction of providing appropriate care closer to home, supporting people to maintain their independence by reducing sight loss and the burden of blindness as well as meeting the quadruple aim. The Welsh Government's Together for Health: eye health care delivery plan for Wales 2013-2020 has as one its ten priorities, the digitisation of eye care, both referral and Electronic Patient Record (EPR), as a key enabler for the improved performance and delivery on the planned care pathways for eye care. The lack of an EPR is impeding achievement of capacity and demand balance for eye care, compromising patient safety and missing opportunities to deliver cost savings by skill mix. Without EPR functionality, the health board eye care plans will not be deliverable, and patients will not receive timely, prudent care. A vital part of the eye health care plan is the digitisation of eye services. This is an essential enabler to improving integration, and accessing and sharing information. An EPR is required to allow the hospital clinicians and community optometrists to electronically record and access information relating to patients in order to speed up and improve treatment. A key element of this will be to enable the transfer of treatment from hospital settings (currently unable to meet demand) to community settings where clinically appropriate. This can only be achieved effectively through an electronic system. Paper-based systems impede the service redesign needed to manage the patient safely and efficiently. Referral from optometry practices to hospital eye services is essential to connect the whole system and provide the ability for safe, timely referrals between optometrists in the community and hospital eye services, reducing the need for some patients to be referred at all. The introduction of the EPR will enable the expansion of ‘shared care’, where the NHS and community optometry practices will share a patient record system, to avoid delay and duplication. Information on the treatment of the patient will be available to all appropriate staff, wrapping care around the patient and avoiding duplication of diagnostic tests. It will provide secure access for optometry practices into the NHS Wales network, utilising commercial access software. The model developed will allow optometrists to enter patient data for those receiving ‘shared care’ directly into the EPR as the prime source of data collection, which can then also be viewed by the hospital eye service and vice versa. This digital model also supports the national guidance on Ophthalmic Diagnosis and Treatment Centre (ODTC), providing comprehensive diagnosis and management based on multidisciplinary working. It will also support the development and rollout of regional working to make the whole system more resilient. NHS Wales are looking to work with a partner with a proven track record of supporting integrated health organisations successfully delivering sustained transformational improvement in this domain, with the demonstrable experience to ensure a first class healthcare solution is delivered. To this end, NHS Wales will be offering a supplier day on the 5th June which has been advertised in the Pior Information Notice (PIN) earlier this month. Should you wish to attend, you will need to email emma.lane@wales.nhs.uk with your attendee contact details.