Royal Free prepares for public sector spending cuts

Trust advertises contract for financial information systems

Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust quick off the mark to plan for budget cuts

The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust is advertising for a financial information system to help it deliver greater monetary efficiency, in a contract notice worth between £1.2m and £3m.

The system must integrate with the one trust currently runs.

A spokeswoman for the trust said that the coming public sector spending cuts meant that it had to examine value for money and that it would use the system to help identify areas where it could make savings.

The number of tenders invited are between three and four and the trust's spokeswoman said: “We’ll be looking at vendors such as Oracle and SAP to tender for this contract."

The system will work across the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust and associated sites as well as the University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The contract may also look to drive efficiencies through shared services, since it invites other partners or trusts that may now or in the future be associated with the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, to tender.

"The company tendering for the contract is more likely to be chosen if its financial system can integrate with the trust's partner systems," added the spokeswoman.