NHS England awards £13.3m ‘tiger teams’ contract to KPMG
NHS England has awarded a ‘tiger teams’ contract worth £13.3 million to consultancy firm KPMG to support trusts unlikely to meet the March 2026 electronic patient record (EPR) target.
According to a contract notice published on 9 May 2025, KPMG will “create an experienced, multi-skilled, rapid response intervention service,” also known as a tiger teams service, which will work with providers to support them in reaching a minimum level of digital capability and get EPRs in place.
It will focus on NHS secondary trusts which have said they expect to miss the 2026 government EPR target, including Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust; Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals FT; Royal Orthopaedic Hospital FT; Sherwood Forest Hospitals FT; Stockport FT; University Hospitals Liverpool Group and University Hospitals Sussex FT.
The contract was awarded on 9 May 2025 and will run until 31 March 2026, following a contract notice published in October 2024 which described the “notoriously complex” nature of EPR implementation.
“Often during EPR delivery, there is a requirement for either a planned, or unplanned, specific, time-bound skill set, capable of providing a set of deliverables, problem rectification or other specialist intervention for an element of the EPR programme,” the notice read.
It added: “Trusts are finding it increasingly challenging to obtain good quality, skilled short-term resources, both from the recruitment and contingent labour market.”
To support trusts to alleviate this issue, NHSE explains, that tiger teams will “deliver a time-boxed service on behalf of the trust where other attempts to fulfil the requirement have been unsuccessful”.
The tiger teams service is part of the £1.9bn frontline digitisation programme, which is working with provider organisations to support them in reaching a minimum level of capability and to have an EPR in place by March 2026.
In July 2023, Vin Diwakar, national director of transformation at NHSE, said that every trust across the NHS was on track to have an EPR in place by March 2026.
A recent snapshot report from Future Health Intelligence on the acute EPR market found that 94% of NHS acute trusts in England currently have an EPR in place and 97% are expected to have one in place by March 2026.
KPMG also won an £8.5m contract with NHSE in April 2024 to “promote the adoption” of the federated data platform (FDP) by trusts and integrated care boards and provide “technical support and implementation services” until 17 March 2026.
