NHS Scotland signs £300m outsourcing deal

Atos Origin to provide end-to-end services for next 11-years

NHS Scotland has signed a £300m outsourcing contract with Atos Origin to extend its provision of principal end-to-end IT services for the next 11 years.

The vendor will provide IT infrastructure, data centre hosting, security management, help desk, business continuity, application development and support and network services.

The deal also involves a £7m investment to set up a new data centre in Livingston to host and support infrastructure, applications and vital patient data.

The centre will form a solid platform from which to run critical clinical applications such as an electronic summary of patient information required in an emergency.

Minister for health and care in the community Andy Kerr, says currently most health information is stored in paper and kept in different places.

‘The services in this contract will help prepare the health service for the future and ensure that patient records are stored in a secure electronic environment,’ he said.

‘The data centre will enable secure access to patient information 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It will also enable the safe and reliable sharing of information across the NHS in Scotland and provide the basis for a truly integrated health service.’

Ovum analyst John O’Brien says the deal is a major renewal for Atos Origin, which inherited the contract from its acquisition of SchlumbergerSema in 2003. It beat off competition from EDS and Siemens Business Services.

‘NHS Scotland has introduced a number of factors that ensure it interacts with the team as an intelligent customer,’ he said.

‘It has tightened up on performance targets, increased its focus on delivering value for money, introduced flexibility to change the scope as and when required, and backed this up by a new emphasis on supplier partnering.’

O’Brien says NHS Scotland is increasingly procuring systems and services on a national basis to get the best value for money.

The new contract will cover local and national systems like the Community Health Index, Community and Preventative Care systems, child immunisation, ePharmacy, PSD Applications, payroll and the National Clinical Scottish Care Information store.

Atos will manage a team of suppliers under the Atos Origin Alliance, including BT, IBM and Sopra Newell & Budge. It will recruit some 150 people in Scotland over the next three years to support the NHS Scotland deal and other contracts.

The contract is expected to begin on April 1, 2007.

What do you think? Email us at [email protected]