As much as £16m funding for patient care could be diverted
to support IT in general practice unless the NHS national programme
for IT or its contractors reach agreement with the most popular GP
system supplier, Emis.
Local service providers contracted to the programme in deals worth
billions of pounds will support and fund GPs' software from iSoft
and IDX and will provide an alternative GP clinical system.
However, because Emis, which is used by more than half of GP
surgeries in England, does not have a contractual relationship with
local service providers, the system will have to be supported at a
local level by primary care trusts.
"If primary care trusts are left to pick up the bill for practice
systems, there is little doubt they will not be able to afford it
without redirecting resources from patient care," said Mike
Sobanja, chief executive of the NHS Alliance, a body representing
primary care trusts across England.
Emis users are likely to want to stay with the system because they
are familiar with it, and use it to collect data for the new
General Medical Services contract, under which they are paid.
Primary care trusts are obliged to support Emis under the terms of
the General Medical Services contract.
Emis systems and hardware cost about £4,000 per surgery per year to
support, according to Manpreet Pujara, a GP and chairman of the
Emis User Group.
About 4,000 practices in England use Emis, so resources diverted
from patient care could amount to £16m a year. Although local
service providers would offer alternative GP systems, many Emis
users would want to stay with the software, Pujara said.
Emis users feared loss of earning from moving to a new system, and
said they did not have the time to retrain when existing systems
suited their needs, he added.
A spokeswoman for the NPfIT said GPs could continue to use existing
systems as long as they were compliant with the NHS Care Records
Service. Funding for systems was covered by the General Medical
Services contract and primary care trusts have allocated funding
for IT.
"The national programme recognises that Emis supplies a significant
number of systems to primary care practitioners, and the national
programme has made efforts to encourage Emis to engage with local
service providers. It is a matter for the company whether it enters
into arrangements with any of the local service providers," she
said.