By Andy McCue, 8 December 2003 16:45
NEWS IT contracts worth a total of £2.7bn have been awarded today as part of the NHS' IT modernisation plans.
BT is the biggest winner, heading a consortium that includes Oracle, Sun Microsystems and LogicaCMG to beat off IBM for the £620m contract to build and run the 'data spine' that will support national electronic patient records.
Two regional contracts have also been awarded. BT has bagged a £1bn deal to provide the infrastructure for the London region to access and use the care records and electronic booking services, while Accenture will also lead a consortium of suppliers that has won a £1.1bn contract to provide the IT infrastructure for the North East region.
Other Local Service Provider (LSP) contracts for the North West and West Midlands, and Southern and Eastern regions will be awarded by the end of this year.
Speaking at the announcement health minister John Reid said the NHS Care Record service will "completely revolutionise the way that information is accessed" in the health service.
Richard Granger, director general of NHS IT, said in a statement that the contract terms will help ensure the delivery of the projects on time and budget.
"We will remunerate suppliers for successful delivery but not for delay and failure," he said.
The national programme for IT in the NHS has been allocated £2.3bn funding for the first three years. Granger has said that more funds will be needed beyond 2005 and analyst estimates put the total needed for the first five years at around £5bn.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Narayana.D
No Doubts about it - A Great X'mas!!!!
2. anonymous
Doctor : "Here's the good news"
Patient : "What's that then doctor"
Doctor : "I can see everything that's ever been wrong with you at the touch of a button and it only cost £5 billion".
Patient : "So what's the bad news"
Doctor : "We can't give you your operations because there's no nurses, no equipment and even if you did get it, you'd probably die of MRSA because the hospital's filthy."
Priorities anyone ?
3. anonymous
This statment got me -
"We will remunerate suppliers for successful delivery but not for delay and failure,"
Hmmm! NHS do that to us all the time - so can I have my tax back?