BT to cut NPfIT charges by ?112mSome London hospitals will...

BT to cut NPfIT charges by ?112m

Some London hospitals will connect existing IT to national systems, under a new agreement between the capital's local service provider and the government



* SmartHealthcare.com
* Smart Healthcare, Thursday 1 April 2010 14.14 BST

BT, which installed Cerner Millennium software at Kingston Hospital by a deadline of end of November, said it has agreed to update its local service provider contract, providing "a revised, more flexible approach to the delivery of clinical solutions.

"BT is confident that this will meet the evolving needs of the NHS in London and provide trusts with the flexibility to satisfy their individual requirements, while also helping to contribute to the NHS National Programme for Information Technology's cost savings, through the modification of requirements," the firm added on 1 April 2010.

The Department of Health said these modifications will save ?112m, with BT handling fewer new implementations. Instead, where hospitals have fit for purpose IT already in place, this will be connected to national systems.

The news comes as CSC missed its deadline to implement iSoft's Lorenzo software at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust