The Department of Health is publishing the technical specification for the Integrated Care Records Service (ICRS) at the heart of the £2.3bn NHS National Programme for IT.

The document was leaked to Computing, leading to calls for its publication from NHS IT staff and industry representatives, including supplier trade body Intellect (see Computing 22 May).

'The primary purpose of the document is to provide sufficient detail on the specification and standard for ICRS that any company or consortia delivering work to support the National Programme and the ICRS will need to meet.

'It is work in progress and ongoing development and refinement will be important,' said the department.

Ultimately, ICRS will deliver an electronic record containing personal details and clinical information such as treatment history, test results and x-rays, accessible nationally by authorised staff in all NHS organisations and linked to national booking and prescription systems.

• The government has also announced that 22 suppliers are still in the running for the five local service provider (LSP) and eight for the national application service provider (NASP) contracts.

  The first two LSP contracts will be signed by the end of October for London and North East, Yorkshire and Humberside.

• The final three candidates for the NASP contract for the ebooking application have been shortlisted. The deal is due to be signed in September.
• The government is advertising for suppliers for the next-generation N3 broadband network, to upgrade the existing NHSNet connecting hospitals and GPs nationwide.

'The project will satisfy the wide-are broadband networking requirements of the NHS or the next seven to 10 years and provide stability and continuity in the transition from the current to the new service,' said the department.