BT,
the main IT supplier to the NHS in London under the £12.7bn
NHS's
National Programme for IT [NPfIT], is
"stretched to deliver", according to the capital's strategic
health authority.
BT
is the capital's local service provider under a £996m 10-year
contract
it won in 2004. It is to supply systems to up to
43 hospitals in the London area which serve more than seven
million people.
There have been
a range of problems at its main installations including
Barts and the London NHS Trust,
Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust,
Barnet and
Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust and
Queen Mary's Sidcup.
NHS London said that, since BT is already stretched to deliver,
it "would be unhappy if BT tried to take the commercial advantage
following
the cancellation by Fujitsu of their contract".
But BT is negotiating with health officials to take over the
support of eight trusts in the south of England where Fujitsu was
the main supplier. It could win further business at NHS trusts
where Fujitsu was due to be the supplier.
The claim that BT is stretched to deliver was made in a paper to
the board of the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust.
The
Royal Free was the first NHS site in England to go live with the
first release of the Cerner Millennium Care Records Service in
June. The "LC1" version of Millennium has been tailored for use
in London.
BT denies the claim. Its spokeswoman said: "The BT answer to
"are we stretched" is 'no'. We're confident we have the right
resources in place to deliver our commitments in London. If we
acquire additional responsibilities in the south we will make sure
these are properly underpinned and fully resourced while continuing
to develop, deploy and manage all our systems in London to the
required standard."
Read the full story on IT Projects blog>>
NHS paper on the health of the National Programme for IT from the
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust>>