HP plans open source offer for NHS

Hewlett Packard is planning to provide a full electronic patient record system on the open source framework being developed by NHS England.

The system is called ‘NHS Healthcare Information System’ and will include complex scheduling, e-prescribing, requests and results reporting and an A&E admissions system.

EHI reported earlier this year that NHS England is working with four organisations to make their products available on an open source framework being developed for NHS trusts. The other three are: IMS Maxims; University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust with its in-house PICS e-prescribing system; and the US Veterans Association system, VistA,

Up to £20m of the first £260m ‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards: Technology Fund’ will go towards open source development and a similar amount in the second fund, worth £250m.

A spokesperson for HP told EHI it is working with NHS England on the “possibility of joining the open source framework”, but would not confirm which product it will offer.

However, a document seen by EHI outlines plans to open source a product called, ‘NHS HCIS, an integrated open healthcare information system’.

EHI understands that the system will only be available open source to the ‘community’ of NHS trusts that decide to use it in the UK, as it is already in use in around 100 Spanish hospitals.

The web-based system, which has been developed by HP for more than 20 years, is designed to be used across all care settings: primary care; mental health; community; acute; and social care.

“It is also designed to integrate with other systems and gather data from healthcare devices in all settings,” the paper says.

HCIS uses the HL7 standard and customised interfaces to enable integration.

Trusts will commission and control the local implementation of the NHS HCIS platform and the “market will be stimulated to contribute to the platform and develop new and innovative integrated modules which can then be adopted by trusts as required”.

Its current modules are listed as: programme and scheduling system; medical orders; patient management; management of surgical pathways; nursing care; digitising of legacy health records; billing/contract management; and integration.

The HP spokesperson told EHI that the company has a number of teams engaged in exploring the open source option presented by the technology fund.

“HP is a supporter of open standards and believes that it could help promote greater participation and engagement and ultimately achieve better patient outcomes,” the spokesperson said.