US firm to provide tech for first Nightingale hospital

The technology will be used as an extension of the Cerner Millennium domain already in place at Barts Health Trust.

Cerner, an American company, provides EPR services to 24 trusts across the NHS.

Earlier this week HSJ revealed that the trust’s chief executive of its St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Charles Knight, also a leading cardiologist, would run the Nightingale which is being established at London’s ExCel Centre to provide more intensive care capacity to the capital amid the covid-19 pandemic.

In an announcement today Cerner said Barts Health’s EPR is already connected with the network of pathology providers in East London, which will help staff request and access tests “rapidly and electronically”.

The company added its Health Information Exchange interoperability platform is also established between Barts Health and local primary and community care providers – allowing “seamless sharing of patient information locally”.

HSJ asked NHS England if a procurement had been run, but did not receive a response. 

Distie Profit, Cerner’s managing director for the UK, said: “NHS and Cerner teams have managed to get this new facility created within the system in just a matter of days.

“This goes a long way to show the great things we are all able to achieve when we work together towards a single goal, and for the benefit of millions.”

It has not yet been confirmed when London’s Nightingale hospital will open, but it had been due this week.

Two other Nightingale hospitals are being established in Manchester and Birmingham, but it is believed they will provide step up/down care rather than critical care.