The national Laboratory Information Network Cymru (LINC) Programme has reached another crucial milestone with the signing of the first Deployment Order by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.
The deployment order represents the bulk of the value of the £15.9m contract and marks the start of the practical development, testing, and validation of the new service over the next two years. Cardiff and Vale will be the first health board to go live with the new service and the aim is to achieve stable operations by September 2023.
The Laboratory Information Network Cymru (LINC) Programme is one of the flagship programmes for NHS Wales Health Collaborative. In partnership with the pathology service, Digital Health and Care Wales and the wider NHS, LINC has led the business case development and procurement of the new Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) service and will now lead its implementation across Wales.
Following a competitive dialogue procurement, the contract for the new LIMS service was awarded by Digital Health and Care Wales to Citadel Health in October 2021.
Adrian Thomas, LINC Senior Responsible Owner, said: “The new LIMS service will not only improve patient services by reducing test processing time and error rates but could also result in savings of £2.3m a year to be re-invested in patient care. The signing of the deployment order means that work can now get underway on customising and testing the system with a view to it being fully operational by December 2024.”
Dr Fiona Jenkins, Executive Director of Therapies and Health Science at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: “We’re pleased to be working together with NHS Wales Collaborative at the forefront of delivering the new all Wales Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) service, which will greatly improve efficiency and accuracy of pathology services for the benefit of patients across Wales.”
Throughout the programme, LINC has actively led extensive engagement with the pathology service to ensure that the new LIMS service is driven by clinical need to provide tangible patient benefits.
Dr Andar Gunneberg, LINC Clinical Lead for Biochemistry, said: “The new all Wales LIMS service is an exciting development enabling improved service efficiency and patient outcomes. A lot of work is going into ensuring that there will be a single standardised configuration for all Wales. A standardised service will increase patient safety and ensure equal access to diagnostic information throughout Wales. The standardised LIMS will also be an enabler for service reconfiguration, such as regional working, so that pathology services can be organised in the most efficient way throughout Wales.”
Effective partnership working will ensure a fit for purpose, future proofed end-to-end digital solution for the pathology service from electronic test requesting to results reporting.
The new solution has been warmly welcomed by health board chief executives as an example of a patient focused service driven by the pathology clinical community that will enhance and support the future provision of diagnostic services.
Improvements that the new LIMS will bring include:
• Fewer repeat tests, reducing costs and improving patient safety.
• Reduced processing time for test requests releasing staff to meet growing demand.
• Reduced error rates improving clinical safety.
• Improved turnaround times improving patient outcomes.
• Patient results easier to compare with standardised reference ranges.