BT wins more NHS IT deals

BT has won more work in the NHS

BT has signed a commitment to support four further hospitals deploying Cerner patient software and 25 mental and community health sites deploying RiO systems in the Southern region of the NHS National Programme for IT.

The agreement comes on top of the deals BT won to support eight hospitals in the south earlier this month.

The supplier has received a payment of £92.8m in working capital from the government to aid with planning work before deployment of the systems.

The deals arose after Fujitsu saw its contract terminated by NHS Connecting for Health last May.

A further £183,000, excluding VAT, has been paid to BT for work previously undertaken by the company with NHS organisations in the south of England since that termination.

The payments and new sites were announced by health minister Ben Bradshaw in parliament.

A spokesman for BT confirmed the deals.

"BT can confirm it has signed a contract to take over the running of IT systems at eight acute trusts in the South of England as part of its NHS National Programme work, in addition to working with a further four acute trusts which have yet to roll out new systems as part of the NHS National Programme," he said.

"It will also deploy new systems to 25 community and mental health sites in the South. NHS Connecting for Health will provide a further update in due course."