St George's healthcare trust is leading eight other London trusts in setting up a framework contract worth between £250m and £400m. The deal will provide an electronic patient record (EPR) system, a patient administration system (PAS), a clinical portal and hosting services.

The four-year framework, advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union, says that the EPR/PAS solution will cover a full range of administrative and clinical functional modules required by the trusts.

As well as software, suppliers will be required to provide licensing and maintenance, transition and deployment services, application support and solution monitoring.