DoH announces NHS IT shortlist

The Department of Health has announced the suppliers shortlisted for the £2.3bn National Programme for NHS IT.

The programme is broken up into a number of deals - five Local Service Providers (LSPs) will implement and manage the systems locally and National Application Service Providers (Nasps) will develop and run the ebooking, eprescription and electronic records architectures.

BT, IBM and Lockheed are shortlisted for the Nasp contract to develop the data spine that will hold a summary patient record.

EDS, Fujitsu and SchlumbergerSema are competing to supply the ebooking system.

And the shortlist for the LSP contracts includes 11 consortia led by Accenture, BT, Cerner, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, CSC, Plexus Care, IBM, Fujitsu, Lockheed, Patient First Alliance and Schlumberger.

'We have the strongest assembly of prospective suppliers for a public sector contract shortlist that's been seen for many years, which is a powerful testament to supplier commitment,' Richard Granger, director general of NHS IT, told Computing.

Details have also been announced about which prospective LSPs are bidding for which of the five separate regional 'clusters'. The contracts for London and the North East are due to be signed in October with the rest to follow by the end of the year.

Granger denied rumours that only one supplier came forward to bid for the two earliest contracts due to concerns about time pressures.

'In London we had three bidders, in the North East there were five or six' he said.

'We've spent some time ensuring that the cluster allocation exercise fulfils the wishes of the NHS communities and the bidders and produces a mix of bidders to ensure the vibrancy of the competition.'

Communication is increasingly important, says Granger.

'We have arrived at a point where we have increasing clarity about what will be delivered when and what impact it will have. It is time to communicate matters of substance and we are now in position to do that.

'To have started that process six months ago would have been premature because it is important to know what is going to be delivered when to commmunicate with confidence,' said Granger.