30-trust collaboration Highly Commended at HSJ Efficiency Awards 2013

LPP's work managing the Clinical and Administrative Information Systems (CAIS) collaboration of 30 trusts in London and the south was Highly Commended in last night's HSJ Efficiency Awards 2013.

The judges described this work as 'A high-impact programme delivering substantial clinical and financial benefits'.

LPP worked with members and other NHS organisations to find a solution to the ending in 2015 of national provision of clinical and administrative information systems for NHS mental health and community service providers. London and southern trusts concluded that the most cost effective way of creating that alternative arrangement was to create a consortium of NHS organisations to collaborate to find a regional solution. In response, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (C & I FT) was appointed by the Community and Mental Health Programme Board to explore options for the procurement of replacement systems, and LPP appointed to manage the procurement.

The 2015 CAIS Project Team has ensured the cost of the procurement has not been multiplied 30 times, and duplicated by each of the members. Large complex IT procurements within the NHS are traditionally expensive to run, as has been seen in the Acute sector with individual trusts paying circa £300,000 each to cover process and legal costs. Consortium members have paid £20,000 each, giving a pro-rata saving in process and legal fees of around £8.4m. The expected return on the contract is around a 10 per cent reduction in current cost, equating to £30m+ in delivered returns.