NHSSC awards contract for patient ID wristbands

The National Health Service Supply Chain (NHSSC) has awarded a multi-year contract to provide patient identification wristbands for use in NHS hospitals.

The tender has been awarded to P3 Medical, who will distribute the wristbands from Precision Dynamics – a leading firm in automatic identification wristbands.

Precision Dynamics led the way in the industry with the first barcode wristband system in 1984 and now offers a range of products including those using RFID chips, as well as barcode laser printer and thermal printer identification.

The NHSSC has awarded eight contracts in total for the provision of patient ID wristbands for NHS hospitasls, with P3 being one of these firms.

Simon Talbot of P3 said: “P3 is very pleased to have been awarded this important contract by the NHSSC, especially in view of the rapid development to standardise wristbands, making patient safety the highest priority.”

He added write-on wristbands from Precision Dynamics are being used by more hospitals in the UK than any other, while internationally its automatic positive patient ID systems have been the foundation of the most successful patient safety initiatives for half a century.

Last week, the Department of Health announced the appointment of the new leadership team with the responsibility for progressing its health IT programme.