News, Secondary Care

NHS Scotland opens £216 million laboratory information management system tender

NHS National Services Scotland has opened a tender, worth an estimated £216 million, to procure a new single Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS).

On behalf of all NHS Health Boards in Scotland, the procurement aims to replace existing Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) held at individual Health Boards over the next five years.

The tender stated: “The requirement is to implement a common, modern LIMS to help realise the aims of NHS Scotland’s digital strategies and also to be a key enabler for the National Laboratories Programme to deliver NHS Scotland’s strategic aim for clinical laboratory services in the form of a Distributed Service Model (DSM).”

“The intention is that the new LIMS will meet the requirements of all core laboratory disciplines (Blood Sciences including Blood Transfusion, Cellular Pathology, and Microbiology) including Genetics.”

The new system aims to deliver standardisation of processes, workflow and coding, to enable multidisciplinary multi board team working, and to facilitate quicker, easier and timely sharing of laboratory data across Scotland.

The deadline to request access to participate in the tender process is on 14th December 2020, with invitations to participate to be sent to suppliers by 5th January 2021.

Each Health Board will have 5 years to replace their current system and enter a 10 year contract with the procured system.