Initial demand from London NHS trusts for new national
systems from the capital's local service provider BT is much less
than contracted for in the first year and far higher than expected
in the second year, according to a leaked paper.
The paper, which sets out BT's plans for a technology-led
modernisation of London's health services, revealed that at 31
March the initial demand from trusts for phase one, release one of
BT's services was "considerably lower than that anticipated during
the bid phase" being 19 "bundles" requested, against 86
anticipated.
The demand for a portal giving access to a care records and
electronic booking service was only seven, against 73 specified
when the deal was signed.
However, the BT paper disclosed that demand for bundles in the
financial year 2005/2006, in which the systems on offer promise
much greater functionality than in the initial release, is
"considerably above that anticipated in the agreement".
It said, "A total of 141 bundles have been requested versus 50 in
the agreement. Clearly this level of demand is undeliverable
without a massive, and perhaps unsustainable, spike in activity and
resource input by both the authority [the health service] and the
contractor [BT]."
A spokesman for the national programme for IT in the NHS said the
figures in the BT paper were out of date, but he declined to update
them. The national programme is working with BT to balance demand
from trusts.