A framework contract to deliver 55,000 PCs to the NHS over the next six-months as part of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has been agreed with three giant PC suppliers. The new hardware will be funded by national resources under the NPfIT.
The deal is intended to ensure that the Government’s staff-to-PC ratio target of 2:1 is achieved by 31 March 2004. The three suppliers have been accredited to supply PCs under the framework contract negotiated by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) are Centreprise International, Elonex and Dell.
Under the NPfIT, hospitals, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and specialist clinics across the country will receive investment to purchase much-needed IT equipment.
PASA has already written to all 28 Strategic Health Authorities stressing the importance of urgent action and encouraging them to use the allocated funds to place orders with one of the three accredited PC manufacturers within the next 30 days.
One of the suppliers, Centerprise, said that all of the PCs to be supplied will include integrated smart card readers, enabling the identification of and authentication of NHS staff logging on to machines. NHS systems will ship pre-loaded with Microsoft XP Professional under the NHS Microsoft corporate licensing agreement.