Suppliers start race for £5bn NHS deals

The biggest UK IT project of the year is underway with an invitation to suppliers to register their interest in providing systems for the £5bn NHS National Programme.

The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency has issued a questionnaire, due to be completed by vendors tomorrow (10 January), to determine potential bidders for the ambitious project to modernise health service technology.

The National Programme is a comprehensive strategy placing technology such as high-speed communications networks and electronic patient records at the heart of government commitments to NHS reform.

The outline plan was announced in June and will be paid for by the extra £40bn for the heath service announced in last April's budget. More than £1bn per year for the next five years will be set aside for the Programme.

Management consultants McKinsey Consulting have been employed by the Department of Health (DoH) to report on the supplier market's capacity to support the National Programme.

'This move is to both improve market intelligence and segment the IT industry into relevant groups against the National Programme deliverables. The information gained from the questionnaires will feed into this process,' a DoH spokeswoman told Computing.

The DoH has released few details on how top-level targets will be divided into individual contracts with suppliers, or how the complex procurement process will be managed. But it hopes to sign contracts by the end of April, in order to start work in the autumn.

Richard Granger, the recently appointed director general of NHS IT, says a few prime contractors will manage and co-ordinate the activities of a range of smaller suppliers. But the details of how this will work will not be revealed until a streamlined procurement process is published at the end of this month.

At a time when IT vendors are struggling for sales, the supplier community is keenly anticipating details of the contracts available, says Laurence Harrison, healthcare programme manager at supplier trade body Intellect.

'The timing of this is very positive and now we are just waiting for the details. The streamlining of the procurement process will be a good thing - our members have said all along that to meet the timescales will be a tough call, though everyone is geared up to do it.

'The sector knows that until this work starts there will be a lack of money in the sector so there is a strong drive to get the programme underway,' he said.