Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of NHS Trusts in Plymouth, Devon, Cornwall and Torbay choosing different electronic patient record IT systems on the transfer of patient records between those systems.

Trusts choose electronic patient records systems based on an evaluation of the system that best meets their local needs through a competitive evaluation process, in line with public procurement regulations. The evaluation considers wider contextual factors such as the systems in place elsewhere in the integrated care board or nearby geography. The recently concluded procurement in Cornwall included an evaluation of the impact on near neighbours, including Devon, Plymouth, and Torbay, as one factors among many involved in determining the best fit for circumstances locally. Plymouth and Torbay are about to procure a system and like Cornwall, will follow a regulations compliant procurement taking account of systems nearby in arriving at their choice.