By Vivienne Russell | 8 March 2012
The Department of Health has settled its dispute with a major IT contractor, paving the way for a more localised approach to NHS technology in England, the health secretary has announced.
Andrew Lansley said the agreement reached with Computer Science Corporation would release more than £1bn back into the health service.
US company CSC was the largest supplier to the National Programme for IT, which Lansley scrapped last year following years of delays and technical failures. This left the DoH in dispute with the company, which had demanded to be paid in full.
Earlier in the week, CSC announced that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent with the DoH allowing it to offer its Lorenzo patient record software to NHS bodies in the North, Midlands and East of England. This would be as part of the more locally focused IT framework, Lansley outlined today.
He said the agreement with CSC was a breakthrough which would allow clinicians to exercise more local control and flexibility over the IT services they buy in and use.
‘In the past, doctors and nurses have had to bend
over backwards to fit in with the need of the system introduced to their
workplaces. They were shackled with rigid, expensive IT contracts that
failed to deliver as intended,' Lansley said.
‘We are now putting local clinicians in the driving seat, able to reap the benefits of the explosion in information and technology which is reshaping the world beyond the NHS.’
Moving away from a national contract would allow medium-sized enterprises to enter the market, although some national applications, including Choose and Book, digital x-rays and the electronic prescription service, will remain. And from April 2013, Connecting for Health, the organisation that provides central IT services, will be replaced with a ‘leaner’ body, the department said.
Further national IT initiatives will be approved only if there is a clear need across the entire NHS.
In a statement released on Monday, CSC said: ‘The letter of intent reflects a new approach, moving toward a construct of more localised initiatives, reflecting the shift to more devolved decision-making and budgetary control within the NHS.
‘Systems will continue to meet agreed rigorous national standards and will improve connectivity and interoperability of health providers in order to enhance overall patient care in England.’
