iSoft, manufacturer of patient record software, is preparing to engage directly with health trusts in the Southern region of the £12.7bn NHS National Programme for IT.

This follows recent changes in policy by Connecting for Health, the agency delivering the programme, which will now allow iSoft – and any other suppliers in the market - to deliver software directly to health authorities in the Southern region without the help of a local service provider.

Previously, implementations of patient record software in the region were to be handled by local service provider Fujitsu, but the supplier left the programme last year over contract disputes with Connecting for Health.

Since then BT, already the local service provider for London, has been awarded a £546m contract to support eight trusts already running another type of patient software - Cerner Millennium - in the Southern region and to install it at four more acute trusts.

BT is also delivering 25 implementations of RiO in mental health and community services.

iSoft chief executive Gary Cohen said half the hospital trusts in the South already run some type of iSoft software and that the firm will be at an advantage.

"The changes to the programme allow us to build on relationships in the South that existed before the programme began," he said.

"We are now re-engaging with these customers to upgrade existing systems, and contribute to a strategy to gradually replace these systems with Lorenzo.”

Lorenzo is already being delivered to three-fifths of the NHS, in the North, Midlands and East of England regions, but all through local service provider CSC.