Health officials are considering paying at least £100m for BT to
take over eight NHS sites from Fujitsu once Fujitsu leaves the
£12.7bn National Programme for IT [NPfIT].
The figure - for two years of support and development of the
Cerner Millennium patient administration system - has taken some in
the NHS by surprise. One view in the NHS is that support of the
sites should cost a total of about £8m to £10m a year, though this
figure may not include future improvement of the software to meet
NPfIT standards.
Before the advent of the NPfIT, the typical cost of supporting a
trust’s installation of a patient administration system was between
£500,000 and £1.5m a year – though these were not specified to same
standards as the national programme.
Fujitsu has installed the Cerner Millennium system - a basic
version known as R0 - at eight health communities in the south of
England. But Fujitsu is leaving the NPfIT as its £1bn contract was
terminated after the
failure of talks on a revised contract.
BT is expected to take over the Fujitsu sites because
BT is already supplying the Cerner Millennium system in London
as the capital’s NPfIT local service provider – though the Cerner
software used in the south and in London are not the same.
Talks between BT and NHS Connecting for Health, which runs part
of the national programme, have continued since Fujitsu’s departure
was announced in May 2008. Computer Weekly understands that the
sticking point is price. Health officials want BT to take over the
Fujitsu sites because it provides continuity and ensures that the
trusts involved remain part of the NPfIT.
Health officials hope to have a deal with BT agreed by the end
of this month, though it would be subject to approval by the
Treasury, the Department of Health, and the NPfIT Local Ownership
Programme [NLOP] teams, which could cause a further delay.
Fujitsu is providing temporary support to its live sites in the
south until a six-month transitional agreement expires on 28
November 2008.
A spokesman for NHS Connecting for Health said:
"Discussions are taking place around the transfer of live
services to a replacement supplier. During the transition, Fujitsu
will continue to maintain all live services and manage an orderly
transfer of service. The options for alternative arrangements are
currently being assessed between the Department, the strategic
health authorities and NHS Connecting for Health."