Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
Business Services Organisation
James House 2-4 Cromac Avenue
Belfast
BT7 2JD
Contact
Catherine Fegan
Telephone
+44 2895362561
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
UKN06 - Belfast
Justification for not providing organisation identifier
Not on any register
Internet address(es)
Main address
http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
one.5) Main activity
Health
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
Dedalus- PAS/XPR Services
Reference number
DAC12216
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
License, Support & Maintenance for XPR/PAS Access to XPR Database that is managed by Dedalus and is directly linked to the Patient Administration system (PAS).
With encompass roll out not due to complete until 2025, the new NIDIS service still needs to be able to send demographics and HCN number data to the XPR for those Trusts still using PAS. Without this there is a risk to patient safety and will cause fragmentation of patient records.
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)
Value excluding VAT: £308,356.95
two.2) Description
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKN - Northern Ireland
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
License, Support & Maintenance for XPR/PAS Access to XPR Database that is managed by Dedalus and is directly linked to the Patient Administration system (PAS).
With encompass roll out not due to complete until 2025, the new NIDIS service still needs to be able to send demographics and HCN number data to the XPR for those Trusts still using PAS. Without this there is a risk to patient safety and will cause fragmentation of patient records.
These services have been supplied by Dedalus as part of their Managed Service until now. The services are required until Encompass is live in all 5 Trusts.
The prices, volumes and duration of the DAC will be minimised by cancelling the contract as soon as Encompass is live in all 5 Trusts and there is no longer a requirement for the service.
The long-standing relationship that BSO has with the current patient administration system (PAS), currently managed by Dedalus, has enabled us to obtain similar pricing to what was previously purchased under the Steria contract. Dedalus has taken into consideration the length of service from the previous 3rd party providers contract when creating a quotation directly for BSO.
There will be no requirement for this service once Encompass is live in all of the five Trusts.
In terms of duration, is there will be no further need to "keep the lights on" the system beyond encompass go live on all Trusts as NIDIS will no longer need to access XPR when encompass fully live.
two.2.5) Award criteria
Price
two.2.11) Information about options
Options: No
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.1) Type of procedure
Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the cases listed below
- The services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason:
- absence of competition for technical reasons
Explanation:
The regional GP OOH clinical information system (Adastra and Odyssey) is the central piece of the GP OOH ICT infrastructure. DXC and via their contractual relationship with Advanced provide a managed service to provision and support these services.
The Regional GP Out of Hours (GP OOH) service provides, for urgent conditions, a comprehensive, safe and efficient Out of Hours Service to the Northern Ireland population, who are also entitled to General Medical Services (GMS) services until the patient's own GP surgery is next open." During the covid pandemic the OOH service was expanded to provide an in hours Phone First Service for Trust ED departments directing patients to the most appropriate point of care. The Phone First services have continued post pandemic and will continue for the foreseeable future. This also expanded the service from an out of hours (6:00pm to 8:00am) service to a 24x7x365 service.
There are 5 Out of Hours Providers commissioned by the Department of Health Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) to provide the GP Out of Hours Service to the population of Northern Ireland. These five GP Out of Hours provider organisations in Northern Ireland deal with over 600,000 patient contacts per year.
The services are required to provide continued management maintenance and support of the Regional GP Out of Hours Clinical information system and the supporting IT services that enable its operation.
Moving to an alternative provider incorporating all of the required managed services provided by DXC is not possible before the expiry of the current contract. Transferring the technical support services, experience, and expertise that DXC provide to another supplier without an appropriate knowledge and skills transfer process would be extremely high risk to the continued operation of the GP Out of Hours service and could not be done safely within the time currently available. We estimate it would take at least six months to safely transfer the support of these services to another provider and this would require both DXC as the current provider and the new provider to be involved jointly in the hand over process.
Failure of the OOH service means that patients, by default, will attend the already overburdened Emergency Departments.
Outside of Advanced, who currently provide the out of hours software solution to over 95% of UK and ROI service providers there are only two other suppliers across the whole of the UK and Ireland.
One is the GP software provider TPP - their software is used by one small OOH provider in England. The TPP solution does not have all the added benefits such as Nurse Triage and integrated decision support. This would not be sustainable in NI as the numbers of GPs available to provide OOH services is diminishing and service is moving to increase the use of nurses and other multidisciplinary teams. The TPP solution does not integrate with the current infrastructure in Northern Ireland for example NIECR nor does it provide the messaging services to GP Practices following a consultation with the Out of Hours service. Considerable development work, requiring additional time and cost, would be required to facilitate development of this functionality.
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: No
Section five. Award of contract
Contract No
DAC12216
Title
Dedalus- PAS/XPR Services
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
five.2) Award of contract
five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
28 March 2024
five.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 1
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
Dedalus
Suite 1 Riverside Studios 2 Embankment Sovereign Street
Leeds
LS1 4BA
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
- UKE42 - Leeds
Companies House
12790545
The contractor is an SME
No
five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Total value of the contract/lot: £308,356.95
Section six. Complementary information
six.4) Procedures for review
six.4.1) Review body
Business Services organisation
Belfast
BT72JD
Country
United Kingdom