By Andy McCue, 10 September 2003 16:30
NEWS BT, Cable & Wireless and EDS have been shortlisted for the 'N3' national broadband network - a key component of the £2.3bn NHS IT modernisation plan. The three companies were shortlisted from a long-list of eight initial bidders, which included Lucent, Energis, NTL and Sema. The final contract will be awarded early next year. A statement on the Department of Health's National Programme for IT website said the N3 supplier will be responsible for building and managing networking services for the NHS that will "provide connectivity and bandwidth to support current and future NHS requirements". Initially, the target is for the national broadband network to support the clinical and business requirements for healthcare professionals, but there is a longer-term goal to enable patient access to information as well. The NHS IT programme was hit last week by the shock withdrawal of one of the leading bidders, Lockheed Martin, for the electronic patient record system.
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