Suppliers band together to target new NHS IT marketplace

A group of healthcare technology suppliers have clubbed together to try and jointly develop and market IT systems to support NHS Trusts throughout the NHS reforms.

The so-called One Health Alliance says it was set up to bring best of breed technologies to healthcare organisations in both the public and private sector.

Members include suppliers such as Oracle, Clinical Solutions, Ardentia, Sunquest Information Systems and IMS Maxims who have experience and customer engagements in areas of healthcare ICT such as decision support, business intelligence, patient administration systems (PAS) and laboratory and diagnostic information.

The group will work together to share best practice and market intelligence following changes in the NHS which it says mandates both more "innovation" and "less fragmentation".

It will also target all the new GP consortia and existing NHS organisations with "an interoperable, wide-reaching set of solutions to support them through the changes while improving efficiency and patient care".

"The suppliers for the One Health Alliance have been, and are being, carefully chosen to complement each other through their experience and expertise," claimed Tom Humphries, Business Manager at Clinical Solutions and chair of the Alliance.

"While competition between suppliers is healthy, the group provides an informal discussion forum outside any specific procurement and looks at ways of working to benefit organisations in the public and private sector."

According to the One Health Alliance, many new commissioners may have little or no experience of procuring the right IT systems for their organisation.

"It is paramount they know that One Health Alliance suppliers are not only working to discover and address the needs of commissioners at this early stage in the reforms, but also that suppliers are willing to talk and work together for the greater good of the industry," claimed Humphries. "It is this kind of openness that the NHS has been missing for some time."

The Alliance claims to have started inviting frontline staff, including GPs, to come and discuss how the reforms are affecting them and how IT suppliers can react to support their needs.

Dr Richard Fisher, a GP from Swindon said: "The world in which GPs operate is very different to the commercial world.

"Not only was meeting with the One Health Alliance an opportunity to tell suppliers what GPs in my community need and have a interactive discussion about those requirements, but it also enabled me to see the commercial world close-up, something that frontline staff rarely get the opportunity to do."