AS the Government’s spending review begins to bite, one Bolton company says it can help NHS Trusts to save time and money.

Ascribe says its intranet and document management system will free up hard-pressed health service professionals just as the Government is demanding more for less.

The Westhoughton health IT provider has helped a hospital trust in the North East to reorganise its back office functions to save time and money.

Ascribe says an intranet and document management scheme installed at the County Durham NHS Foundation Trust will help it meet government targets to reduce the time and costs of gathering and reporting statistics.

Ascribe and its consultancy arm, WCI Healthcare, was awarded the contract after beating off stiff competition.

Marketing spokesman Simon Mehlman said: “This system is useful to trusts because we are now seeing more hospitals being pressured into squeezing more efficiency gains more rapidly.”

Andy Ronson, of Ascribe’s WCI consultancy division, said: “Using Microsoft SharePoint, and with our refinements, we are able to have the system up and running within days or a few weeks, rather than months.”

The company is already well known in the medical world for its clinical and medical healthcare IT systems, which are used by around 75 per cent of NHS Acute Trusts.

Now Ascribe is forging ahead with systems that help hospitals organise, run and develop their administrative back-up systems.

The new system focuses on document and content management.

The County Durham NHS Trust asked Ascribe’s consultancy service to design, brand and build its SharePoint 2010 core intranet from the hardware augmented with extra services.

Now the system will help staff to access information quickly and seamlessly across the entire Trust to keep track of all kinds of information.

This includes policies and procedures, annual leave booking, clinical governance pharmacy, standard report pack, e-learning, medical research services and employee leavers and starters.

Ascribe chief executive Stephen Critchlow said: “Ascribe’s NHS Solution Accelerator Packs, combined with our consultancy expertise, provide trusts with an effective means to hit NHS targets that focus on improved service delivery, accountability and improving efficiency.”

Andrew Izon, associate director of health informatics at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The solution from Ascribe was chosen because it offered real value for money and will deliver a prompt return on our investment, with rapid improvements in quality and longer term benefits to patient care.”