The document conversion contract, which covers everything from general medical records and hand-written notes to x-rays, test results and photographs, is intended to speed access to patient files.

Currently, patient records are stored in four different locations, including a secure storage warehouse and the trust's three main hospitals, meaning they can take up to four hours to be recovered.

Philip Smith, project manager EDMS for the Mid Yorks NHS Trust, said: "Converting patient records to digital files will bring significant and meaningful benefits to the patients we treat.

"We will be able to access documents instantly, which in many cases will speed up treatment for patients. Furthermore, the trust will experience significant cost savings by closing down our storage centre at Whitwood."

The project, which will run until November 2010, will involve EDM securely transporting the documents to its Wolverhampton site for scanning and export via a secure link to the trust's own network.

EDM said that its barcode technology would allow documents to be tracked, filed and relocated with ease and will also ensure that when the documents are uploaded, specific correspondence can be located within a particular patient's file.

The value of the contract was not disclosed.