Public Accounts Committee

Inquiry into NHS Informatics Services

Andrew Griffiths, Director of NHS Wales Informatics Service sent the following information which Members noted on 14 May. As part of that item, Members asked that the figures supplied were checked with the individual health boards. Where the health boards have indicated a different figure, an explanation has been added. 

Following the PAC meeting NWIS looked at any double running costs being incurred. The supplier costs are shown in the table below along with the organisations funding them. In addition to telepath costs (awaiting implementation of blood transfusion module) the GP links software requires a software upgrade from one of the GP system suppliers before the legacy system can be fully retired. Those costs (in thousands) are also shown in the table below.

Services:	AB	ABMU	BCU	C&V	CT	HD	Powys	PHW	Vel	Total
Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)	79	133 151	99	73	42	83 96	0	0	0	509
National GP Links	0	9	9	9	0	9 18.5	0	0	0	36
Total	79	142 160[1]	108	82	42	92 114.5[2]	0	0	0	545

Chamber and Committee Services

6 June 2018

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[1] ABMU’s situation regarding legacy local LIMS systems is different to most other Health Boards/Trusts. These other organisations have Telepath as their legacy system and each pays a contribution towards a centrally hosted NWIS environment. ABMU previously had Masterlab in place across the organisation and the cost of maintaining it as a single organisation, whilst National LIMS is not complete, is higher than what the other organisations are paying for Telepath. ABMU’s actual dual running costs for LIMS is £151k, resulting in a total of £160k (£9k GP Links).

[2] Hywel Dda UHB has two legacy GP Links systems (Withybush and Bronglais). HDUHB figures are inclusive of VAT.