A HORWICH firm has been selected by Alder hey Children's NHS Foundation trust to provide the IT infrastructure for a new-build hospital in a five-year contract worth upwards of £2.5 million.

Imerja, based at Paragon Business Park in Chorley New Road, will carry out the contract in partnership with Insight (UK) Ltd.

With building work for the new hospital site still underway, Imerja will install secure IT infrastructure across the campus, which will cover the hospital’s LAN, wireless LAN, telephony and unified communications solutions.

The company will also provide a fully managed service across the infrastructure for a five-year term liaising with the hospital’s internal IT teams to provide performance monitoring, fault diagnosis and rectification as well as problem and change management for the Trust’s new hospital and peripheral sites.

Alder Hey provides care for over 200,000 children every year and relies heavily on a complex IT infrastructure.

The project, "Alder Hey in the park", will be a specialist children’s hospital built inside the Trust’s park grounds and aims to create a relaxing environment for patients while they receive expert care.

The hospital is the first of its kind in Europe and is set to open in 2015, with the Trust turning to Imerja to provide support for its "hospital of the future".

Managing director and co-founder of Imerja, Ian Jackson, said: “We are extremely proud to be associated with this prestigious project.

"We know the healthcare sector and are acutely aware of the pressures, the budget constraints and how critical the patient experience is, and this has been reflected within our solution.

"The work done at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital can be life changing so it’s crucial that we ensure everything works smoothly.”

Associate director of informatics at Alder Hey, Cathy Fox, said: “We are delighted to be working with Imerja to implement cutting edge, robust technologies in our new hospital.

"These core services will underpin day-to-day activities across the Trust and will include a focus on improving the experience for our patients and their families. This will include dedicated wi-fi which will be available free of charge across the Trust.”