“Tiger Teams” of multi-skilled private sector experts are now accepting requests for EPR support, following a procurement process from NHS England which culminated in the award of a contract worth up to £13,333,334 to KPMG LLP.
The contract is set to run to March 2026, with the contract notice stating that the service will be offered in addition to “existing comprehensive support” available to providers, designed to support the national demand for resource, expertise and information to successfully complete EPR rollout.
Under the contract, KPMG LLP will be required to create “an experienced, multi-skilled, rapid response intervention service also known as a Tiger Teams service” capable of supporting EPR delivery across England, in line with the Frontline Digitisation Programme’s aims to support provider organisations to reach a minimum level of digital capability and to have an EPR in place by the end of March 2026.
NHSE shared an update highlighting that the Tiger Teams offering is now live and accepting requests, “offering cross-functional private sector teams with specialist skills that can operate nationwide to provide short, targeted, time-boxed, rapid response and on-site (boots on the ground) support” to trusts at critical points in their EPR journey.
However, it notes that all other options should be exhausted prior to submitting a request, including support from existing vendors, and that trusts will be required to sign an MoU committing to payment to NHSE for 50 percent of the cost of deploying the team within the 2025/26 financial year.
More information is available from the Tiger Teams webpage relating to example scenarios, the request process, MoU templates and FAQs.
Wider trend: Electronic patient records
A recent HTN Now webinar focused on optimising and adding value to EPRs, with an expert panel including Ciara Moore, unified EPR programme director at Mid and South Essex and Essex Partnership University; Neill Crump, digital strategy director at Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust; Stacey Spence, EPR programme manager at Medway NHS FT; and Andrew Harrison, product manager at Imprivata.
NHS England’s board meeting discussed operational, performance, delivery, and digital, data and technology updates, recently noted that the Frontline Digitisation programme is “on track” for 96 percent of trusts to have implemented an EPR by March 2026. As of March 2025, 19 trusts are listed as having no EPR, but are in the process of procuring, or implementing one.
This month so far has seen EPR milestones hit for a number of trusts, including the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RJAH), which has completed the roll-out of its Apollo EPR system, and St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospitals, where the iClipPro EPR has gone live across all sites, covering more than 17,000 colleagues.
