On 27th August, we reported on St Barnabas Hospice which cares for people who are living with a life-threatening illness across Lincolnshire, from an eleven-bed in-patient unit and five day-hospices.

We are now proud to announce that this project has been shortlisted in the 'Community Project of the Year' category of the Computing Awards for Excellence 2008.

Described as the 'Oscars of the IT Industry', the Computing Awards for Excellence are the most sought after awards in the industry and reward people for that very word, 'excellence'.

Representatives from TPP and from St Barnabas Hospice will be attending the awards ceremony at Battersea Park Arena on November 5th.

The other projects shortlisted in the same category are:

Bullying UK – Click, create & print
City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council – SmartAssist
e-Learning Foundation – Great Ormond St Hospital project
Liverpool Direct & BT – Telecare 
Solihull Community Housing – Leased lines in the sky
University of Liverpool & OciusB2 – Community Grid  
Voluntary Services Overseas – VSO matching system

Darren Holmes is the ICT Manager for St Barnabas Hospice. He is responsible for managing, installing and supporting IT across all hospice's sites. Darren says, "I'm thrilled with the news that we've been shortlisted for this award."

St Barnabas is a registered charity and a non-NHS organisation, which operates from eight sites. Darren says, "That makes providing a cost-effective, well supported IT solution quite difficult. Historically, it's been extremely difficult for independent hospices to connect to NHS systems. We don't have a permanent N3 connection or the level of support that other organisations have from the NHS."

Darren continues, "It's great to have been nominated for this award, but to have been shortlisted is even better."

TPP would like to thank everyone involved in the work with St Barnabas and the SystmOne Palliative module. We are delighted that this is getting some recognition across the wider IT industry. And we wait with bated breath for November 5th!

For more information on the Computing Awards for Excellence, go to www.computingawards.net