IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Tender description

Varian are the single supplier of the Aria MO and they provide support of the main system and their bespoke interface engine. The system is a highly specialised system which is used to support cancer services in all five health trusts in the HSCNI. The interface engine allows inbound and outbound messages which provide essential clinical information to those treating cancer patients. Varian are the only company that possess the expertise to maintain the system ensuring continued service delivery. New extension of contract would be from April 2020 until March 2023 with 2 x 1 year further extensions (April 2023-March 2024; April 2024-March 2025). The encompass programme will replace many of HSC’s aging and obsolete technology, as well as, add functionality which is currently not available in HSCNI). The encompass team have confirmed that RISOH is out of scope and that Epic does have an Oncology module (Beacon) which is part of the enterprise licence but there is no implementation of it included at this stage. Whist RISOH is not currently within scope this may be reviewed during its programme lifecycle. Therefore the contract term will enable these reviews to take place and action accordingly. To continue the support of the Varian ARIA MO system which is in clinical use region wide by cancer services. Currently RISOH has in excess of: • 2 000 register users; Oncologists, Haematologists, Nursing, Pharmacy, AHP, Radiotherapy and Admin • 280 daily concurrent users from 20 different locations across the 5 trusts and BSO. On average every month RISOH oncology processes: • 2 586 Outpatient appointments • 4 640 Scheduled patient treatment appointments • 18 231 Electronic patient documents • 4 640 Electronic prescriptions • 5 804 Drug administrations Therefore it is better value for money to remain with the current system and supplier. It would be a risk to trusts as this is as a highly specialised system and any change would require as a minimum retraining of all staff.