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Large Midlands healthcare Trust

Bevan Brittan has been assisting a large Midlands healthcare Trust for a number of years in connection with a series of linked ICT projects which seek to automate and integrate the end-to-end medicines management process. The Trust’s strategy encompasses all aspects of pharmacy management:

• procurement of pharmacy supplies;
• stock control and reordering;
• prescribing;
• dispensing; and
• administration.

Over 75% of all acute beds are now covered by the electronic prescribing system which has resulted in enhanced clinical care, reduced drug errors and more effective prescribing management. Bevan Brittan’s initial involvement in the strategy focused on ensuring that, through a series of software licences and assignments, the Trust had the appropriate intellectual property rights required to develop and exploit its own prescribing system (“PICS”).

The next stage in the development of PICS was the integration into the system of the British National Formulary, an authoritative drugs database which assists with the selection and clinical use of medicines. Bevan Brittan worked with the Trust to secure the relevant rights to use BNF data from the BMJ Publishing Group (part of the BMA) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. In addition to drafting contract documents, the negotiations with BMJ and RPSGB required consideration and agreement in relation to a range of complex ICT-related issues:

• data “clean-up” and conversion;
• data formatting and validation;
• product development (in relation to BNF upgrades and new releases).

The Trust also envisages possible commercial opportunities for exploitation of the BNF-enhanced PICS system and the contractual arrangements as between the three parties were required to address future co-operation in relation to commercialisation of the integrated product. This part of the strategy completed in 2006.

Bevan Brittan is currently assisting the Trust with a parallel sub-project which is intended to procure a strategic partner for the supply of drugs to the Trust together with a pharmacy robotics system (for the automated dispensing of medicines). Automated dispensing has been proved to improve safety, reduce the incidence of dispensing errors and free up staff to spend more time on the wards. From an ICT perspective the particular challenges of this project are:

• ensuring appropriate dispensing capacity for current and future needs;
• integration with PICS and pharmacy stock control systems;
• the need to develop appropriate payment mechanisms.

In addition to the consideration of ICT-specific issues, the Bevan Brittan team has also advised on the procurement methodology, bidder evaluation mechanisms and use of the Competitive Dialogue Procedure. Bevan Brittan’s ability to work with the Trust on this series of related projects stems from a broad experience of health ICT projects, the technical and clinical environment under the Connecting for Health programme and the procurement of ICT as a critical element of a broader Trust strategy.

For further information please contact:
Martin Carroll
Tel: 0870 194 1743
martin.carroll@bevanbrittan.com

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