Four National Health Service (NHS) foundation trusts located in the southeast of England have joined forces to purchase replacement RIS and PACS valued at 50 million pounds (60.6 million euros) when their current contract ends in 2013.
The Kent and Medway Medical Imaging Consortium published a tender dated 3 January in the Official Journal of the European Union for a fully integrated system that includes a RIS, PACS, vendor-neutral archive, and hosting and provision of domain-based systems required for data sharing. The consortium includes the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, the Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, and the MedWay NHS Foundation Trust.
Potential suppliers are given the option of bidding for either an entire managed, comprehensive services, or by individual categories for a combination of software-only and comprehensive solutions.
The contract term will either be 60 months in duration, with the option to extend for an additional 36 months, or 84 months in duration, with the option to extend for an additional 36 months. The Kent Health Informatics service will provide advice throughout the collaborative procurement.
All the hospitals are currently using GE Healthcare RIS, PACS and archive systems.
