The Phoenix Partnership (Leeds) Ltd (TPP) is a software company based in

Horsforth Horsforth is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, five miles north-west of Leeds city centre. Historically a village within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 18,895 ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. It develops and supplies clinical software including SystmOne.

History

The partnership was formed in 1997 by Frank Hester, a computer programmer married to a GP, to create a patient-record storing system that would help GPs after witnessing his wife's "constant struggle with the lack of connectivity and integration between NHS services". The system that was created, SystmOne, was developed the following year as a clinical IT system that linked a GP practice and a diabetes service in

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, UK.

Growth

By 2012, TPP's SystmOne held enough patient records that it could be used as a research database. In partnership with the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

and the UK Government's

Technology Strategy Board Innovate UK is the United Kingdom's innovation agency, which provides money and support to organisations to make new products and services. It is a non-departmental public body operating at arm's length from the Government as part of the UK Re ...

, in May TPP launched ResearchOne as a not-for-profit health and care research database. The company significantly increased its market opportunities when the then prime minister,

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

, invited it on trading missions to both India and China in 2013. By January the following year, it signed its first memorandum of understanding with a Chinese province, the

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

provincial centre for disease prevention and control. In 2016, the company signed its first contract in the Middle East when it agreed with Qatari Integrated Intelligence Services to deliver SystmOne to the private healthcare sector across

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

, including approximately 300 primary care sites. In 2015, David Cameron visited the in-progress building site of new TPP head office. Cameron gave a speech saying, "What PPis doing here is incredible… Companies like TPP keep the UK at the forefront of innovation… TPP is an example of a great British business with immense potential." In the same year TPP's CEO, Frank Hester, received an

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

for his contribution to healthcare in the UK. In September 2023, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' reported that payments totalling £137m since April 2020 from the

Department of Health and Social Care The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the s ...

were found in payment data which had not been published on the Government's official procurement website, "Contracts Finder". Hester, their CEO, is the largest ever donor to the UK governing Conservative Party, having donated £10 million in the space of a year.

Data breaches

In 2017, the SystmOne was found to have serious compliance concerns by the

Information Commissioner's Office The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. It is the independent regu ...

(ICO). This affected 2,700 GP practices in the UK and a new data-sharing feature in the software. Between March 2015 and June 2018, another breach due to the SystmOne software occurred affecting the data of 150,000 patients. This shared the data of patients who had made a type 2 opt-out (which meant they did not allow their data to be used for anything other than their own clinical care). TPP offered an unreserved apology for the breach. A statement to parliament regarding the breach was read out by the health minister and patients were informed by letter.

Founder controversies

In March 2024, ''

'' reported that Frank Hester had supposedly made several racist and misogynist comments. This includes in 2019 an abusive statement about the MP

Diane Abbott Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who has been serving as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987 Unit ...

, saying that Abbott "makes you want to hate all black women" and that she "should be shot". That same year, Hester allegedly called a meeting for "foreign" employees to defend himself following accusations of racist comments by former employees, saying in part, "I want to clear the air and make sure we all know where we are, what we stand for, and we take the piss out of the fact that all our Chinese girls sit together in Asian corner, which they do." A statement from The Phoenix Partnership said Hester abhorred racism and "accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin."

Awards

*2022 – HIMSS "Best Hospital IT solution 2022" for SystmOne, Airmid and Brigid.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Phoenix Partnership Electronic health record software companies Private providers of NHS services Companies based in Leeds