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By Andy McCue, 22 September 2003 17:12

NEWS The £2.3bn programme to modernise the NHS is one of the most ambitious government IT programmes ever undertaken. Lord Hunt announced plans last summer to implement the key electronic patient records, appointment booking and prescriptions centrally on a national basis. And as one of the first major government projects to begin after the introduction of the Office of Government Commerce 'gateway' checks for IT contracts from procurement to delivery it will be a true test of how well the politicians are addressing the poor track record of IT projects in the public sector. Here we provide you with a handy guide to exactly what the ambitious plans of the Department of Health's National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in the NHS are, which key players are in the running to win those contracts, and what the progress is. The government appointed Richard Granger as the 'NHS IT Czar' to oversee the delivery of the programme and back in December he laid out his stall, saying suppliers must perform, or else. In May this year, the government revealed details of how the key contracts in the programme would be structured. In addition to national contracts for a broadband network, integrated patient records, and electronic appointments and booking, five local service providers will work to integrate, upgrade or replace existing local systems into a national infrastructure. Shortlisted bidders for the national and local contracts were finally announced in August, with IBM, BT, Lockheed Martin, EDS, Fujitsu, SchlumbergerSema and Accenture among the usual suspects. But it wasn't long before things began to look a little shaky, with US firm Lockheed Martin controversially pulling out of the contract for a national electronic patient record system, leaving just IBM and BT to fight it out. Richard Granger's draconian confidentiality clauses for bidding suppliers meant no-one was talking but the word on the street was that with Lockheed also bidding for a big MoD contract it found the performance and penalty clauses for the NHS deal too harsh. The shortlist for the broadband contract was then announced, with BT the analysts' favourite to see off Cable & Wireless and EDS. However it was then EDS' turn for the spotlight when it was revealed it had been 'deselected' from the shortlist for the national £150m e-booking part of the programme. Again, no-one was talking but that left just Fujitsu and SchlumbergerSema in the fight for that deal. Speculation is that SchlumbergerSema has been given the nod for that deal, although a formal announcement is not expected for until sometime in October. Granger has been driving a relentless pace with this massive procurement process and, despite grumbles about communication with suppliers and the NHS itself, everything is still on target and many of the contracts will be awarded over the next few weeks and months.