---
title: "Rio Community EPR"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-05a9be"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-05a9be"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05a9be.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05a9be.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "NORTH CUMBRIA INTEGRATED CARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST"
published: "2025-10-07"
---

# Rio Community EPR

Buyer: NORTH CUMBRIA INTEGRATED CARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-05a9be

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## Summary

The procurement process was led by the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, based in Carlisle, United Kingdom, for the "Rio Community EPR" project. This initiative focuses on a community electronic patient record (EPR) system serving women and children and falls under the IT services industry. The direct award has been completed as of 7th October 2025, ensuring continued interoperability and clinical safety which was vital due to the technical complexities involved. This direct procurement approach was employed to maintain continuity of care without the risk associated with a system overhaul. The awarded contract runs from 7th October 2025 until 15th September 2027 and covers multiple regions across the United Kingdom, including UKC, UKD, UKE, UKF, UKG, UKH, UKI, UKJ, and UKK.

This contract presents substantial opportunities for business growth, particularly for companies specialising in IT services, software development, and systems integration. ACCESS UK LTD, the appointed supplier, exhibits the requisite operational support and local experience necessary for this project. Businesses adept in maintaining and enhancing existing healthcare IT infrastructure, as well as those capable of ensuring seamless service continuity, would be well-suited to compete in similar tenders. The strategic extension aligns future competitive procurement with broader healthcare IT advancements and improves potential contract value control, thus offering strong incentives for engaging with NHS technology procurements.

## Notice

This is a community EPR for women and children.

### Procurement Information

Key justifications Single-supplier technical dependency: The current Community EPR is deeply integrated with local workflows, interfaces, device endpoints, and vendor-specific data structures, making immediate replacement technically impractical and unsafe. Continuity of clinical care and patient safety: Any interruption, parallel migration, or hurried cutover risks data loss, access delays, and clinical safety incidents for core community services. Interoperability with existing systems: The incumbent provides proven, live interfaces to acute EPRs, pathology, community devices, and commissioning feeds that would require time-consuming re-engineering if changed. Data migration and integrity risk: Preserving a stable supported platform until a carefully planned migration reduces the likelihood of corrupted historical records, audit gaps, and downtime. Co-terming and strategic procurement alignment: Extending the incumbent allows the Trust to co-term community and acute solutions so the forthcoming competitive procurement can target a single, comprehensive EPR, improving future competition and total cost of ownership. Time required for safe procurement and transition: A competitive tender, detailed clinical evaluation, implementation planning, and a safe transition window require a multi-year runway that a direct award extension provides. Value for money compared with stop-gap replacement: Replacing the system now would incur duplicate costs for parallel licensing, re-training, new interfaces, and accelerated implementation premiums, which outweigh a limited extension to the incumbent. Supplier capability and service continuity: Access UK Ltd has demonstrable operational support, local experience, and existing contractual responsibility for system maintenance and clinical uptime. Financial and commercial rationale Avoidance of sunk and duplicate costs: Extending the incumbent prevents immediate duplication of licensing, integration, and training costs that would be unavoidable with a fast replacement. Controlled procurement spend: A fixed-term extension allows budgeting and consolidation of bids in the downstream tender, improving negotiation leverage and total contract value control. Reasonable short-term pricing lever: The direct award can include performance and pricing reviews to protect value for money during the extension term.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/062952-2025 |
| Notice type | UK5 - Transparency Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Direct |
| Procurement method details | Direct award |
| Tender suitability | VCSE |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 7 Oct 2025 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 7 Oct 2025 |
| Contract period | 6 Oct 2025 - 15 Sep 2027 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | £208,267 |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Complete |
| Awards status | Pending |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | NORTH CUMBRIA INTEGRATED CARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST |
| Locality | CARLISLE |
| Post town | Carlisle |
| Postcode | CA2 7HY |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLD North West (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLD1 Cumbria |
| ITL 3 | TLD13 Cumberland |
| Local authority | Cumberland |
| Electoral ward | Castle |
| Westminster constituency | Carlisle |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | ACCESS |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 48 - Software package and information systems
- 72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

### Codes

- 48000000 - Software package and information systems
- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

## Release History

- 7 Oct 2025 at 14:27 - Award - UK5 - Transparency Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/062952-2025

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/062952-2025
  7th October 2025 - Transparency notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- http://www.theaccessgroup.com
- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents
- https://www.ncic.nhs.uk/

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-05a9be. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05a9be.json.