A new £13m contract to rollout a national critical care information system across NHS hospitals in Wales is creating 25 new IT jobs.
Digital Health & Care Wales(DHCW) has awarded Switzerland-based Ascom a contract for seven years, with the option to extend for a further three years, to implement its clinical information system Digistat.
The technology will begin rolling out at The Grange University Hospital later this year, followed by a phased rollout to other units until 2023. Around 10,000 people were admitted to Wales’ 198 intensive care beds in 2019.
As part of the contract 12 jobs are being created with Ascom and 13 with DHCW, which was previously known as NHS Informatics Service. It is the biggest-ever single contract worldwide for Ascom, which operates in 15 countries.
Digistat will enable intensive care staff across Wales’14 standard adult critical care units to manage electronically many aspects of care. Previously, just three of Wales’ units used electronic systems from other suppliers, while the remainder used paper records. The new system will transform care digitally and give staff a single source of truth for patient information.
Among the new appointments to the project team are Nicola Duglan-John, a clinical consultant for Ascom-based in Swansea, and Stephanie Mahoney, lead specialist for data standards at DHCW who lives in Briton Ferry.
Michelle Cook, project manager at DHCW said: “We are pleased to be working collaboratively with Ascom, and welcome the creation of new and specialised jobs in Wales that will have a positive impact on development of the new critical care system.”
Ascom UK managing director Paul Lawrence said: “We are very proud to have created so many highly specialised posts with Ascom, and our team is looking forward to partnering with DHCW to create the very best system possible for Wales’ critical care staff.”
