News

£15.9m pathology services contract awarded in Wales

NHS Wales has awarded a £15.9 million contract to Citadel Health to support pathology services with new technology.

Aiming to create a digital national pathology network, the system will be used to support 21 pathology labs, hospitals, clinics and GP practices with over 35 million test requests each year.

NHS Wales aims to introduce the Evolution vLab Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) from Citadel Health to underpin the management of patient testing for every discipline across Wales.

Kevin Williams, NHS Wales, said: “This has been a very successful procurement involving a tremendous amount of engagement and effort from staff across multiple organisations. As a result of the logistical challenges created by COVID-19, we have learned to work remotely in an entirely different way, making the best use of technology to facilitate the work involved, including supplier demonstrations, supplier dialogue and virtual site visits across the world.”

Judith Bates, LINC Programme Director, NHS Wales, added: “This is an exciting time for the Pathology service. LINC (Laboratory Information Network Cymru) is looking forward to working with Citadel Health, in partnership with Digital Health and Care Wales and NHS Wales Pathology services, to ensure the new LIMS (Welsh Laboratory Information Management System) is developed to meet NHS Wales requirements and safely deployed across all Pathology laboratories and services.”

NHS Wales has awarded the contract for five years, with an option to extend for a further two years.

In July, Digital Health and Care Wales awarded a contract for a new clinical data repository, and also recently joined us for HTN Now, to share their pharmacy system implementation experience.