"Product purchasing compliance will not only lead to tens of thousands of pounds of savings for the Trust, but, more importantly, it will lead to a reduction in clinical risk," said Stephens.

"We believe that Wander is a stepping stone to a fully modernized NHS," she said. By presenting information to the back-office systems, the system will make sure stock appears correctly in hospital accounts. It should also mean that stock appears in the cupboards more quickly.

"This is only the beginning," said Ian Hill, partner for health consulting at KPMG Consulting. He expects a full implementation of Wander to eventually pass requisitions right through to the supplier without manual intervention, cutting paper even further which would, he said, "eliminate the endless paper trail in NHS trusts."

The Bradford trust co-developed the application, so it has not actually paid money up front--though it is a KPMG customer and this product evolved out of other work. KPMG will now sell the product to other trusts and extend it to cover other applications.

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volved out of other work. KPMG will now sell the product to other trusts and extend it to cover other applications.

"When the system comes to market, it will have a price tag," said Gary Howe, a director of public sector consultancy at KPMG. The price is not made public, but will be set according to the size of the installation, and should allow a return on investment within a few months, he said.

"The NHS has invested heavily in the development of its supply chain in recent years," said Lord Hunt, a government minister for health, citing the Purchasing and Supplies Agency (PASA) and the NHS Logistics Authority. "The use of mobile commerce is making further developments possible and I believe that there are considerable benefits to be gleaned from using this new technology."

The Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust manages Bradford Royal Infirmary and St. Luke's Hospital, providing healthcare for Bradford's 486,000 people, and some specialist services for much of the rest of West Yorkshire. It employs approximately 4,000 staff and has an annual turnover of £150 million ($234 million), caring for 300,000 outpatients, 100,000 inpatients and 110,000 casualties a year.

[For more technical details, see the Tech Update feature Hospital mobile revolution starts with supply chain.]

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