The State IT Agency (SITA) has issued a tender inviting potential suppliers to submit bids for the procurement of an electronic health record system, said to be valued at about R500 million.
The system would, according to the tender document, "provide a longitudinal collection of personal health information of a single individual, entered or accepted by healthcare providers and stored electronically".
The tender is in the "request for proposals" (RFP) phase, but a source at SITA, closely involved in the process, says the tender may be awarded on the basis of the RFP.
If, however, the bids differ substantially in nature, it may be necessary to take the process to a "request for bids" stage, he notes.
Ubiquitous project
The source, who does not wish to be named, describes the health records system as "a huge project that will be used in hospitals and clinics all over SA".
While no official figure has, at this stage, been attached to the tender, the source says: "I would expect it to be worth a minimum of half-a-billion rand."
The invitation opened on 2 June, and will close on 14 July, having been extended at the health department`s request by two weeks, explains SITA senior manager for strategic sourcing Velaphi Zikalala.
"This is the first time the department is doing this, so it is also very much in the dark about what it may cost," he says.
Major goals
Following the closure of the invitation period, the evaluation process could take as little as three months, assuming the request for bid is not necessary.
SITA was unable to indicate, at the time of publication, the number of parties who have already submitted bids for the tender.
The agency says the goals of the project are to:
* Integrate health record systems in the country by bringing together all the different health information systems.
* Develop a population healthcare base.
* Improve administration, planning and policymaking at both national and provincial level.
* Enable national monitoring and evaluation of health trends.
* Track patients for continuing healthcare.
* Reduce medical errors.
* Improve the referral system.
The RFP follows a recent request for information on the project, when 29 vendors submitted responses.
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