NHS plan will 'cut choice' for GPs

The £2.3bn National Programme for NHS IT (NPfIT) is in danger of creating an uncompetitive market for GP surgery technology, according to users of the most popular GP software.

The Emis system is used by 56 per cent of GP surgeries, but the supplier has not signed a deal with the local service providers (LSPs) responsible for implementing the programme across the five regions, or 'clusters'.

Under NPfIT, GPs and NHS trusts will be offered applications developed by LSPs' clinical applications partners - IDX in the South and in London, and iSoft in the East, North East and North West.

NPfIT's recently-published 'Guidance for Existing Suppliers' suggests LSPs will only offer their partners' GP component, giving surgeries no choice, says the Emis National User Group (NUG).

'The LSP contracts said they should provide a choice of at least two clinical systems for GPs but it would appear that this has gone down to one,' said Emis NUG chairman Manpreet Pujara.

'We now have a postcode lottery for GP IT, which is fundamentally unacceptable because for those GPs who've got to change systems it will have an impact on patient care,' he said.

The Emis NUG is calling on members to contact local MPs, Local Medical Committees and Primary Care Trusts to put pressure on LSPs to offer a choice.

Emis says it has not signed NPfIT deals because, in the North, the contract terms were uninsurable, and in the South the LSP was advised by the NHS cluster board not to offer any alternatives to the main system.

'All GP practices will be offered a choice of IT system,' said a spokesman for NPfIT.

'However, in the long term it is expected that the majority of existing systems will have to be replaced or integrated.'