Three months after health minister John Hutton announced the award of Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) contracts for the five National Programme for IT (NPfIT) clusters, it now seems certain that contracts for at least two clusters will now be awarded to Agfa rather than GE Medical Systems as originally thought.


An NPfIT spokesperson today confirmed the likely change in line-up to EHI: “Subject to contract between the national programme and key suppliers, PACS in the North East and Eastern Clusters will be delivered through collaboration between Accenture, BT and Agfa. The precise commercial arrangements are being finalised, therefore, no further comment can be made at this stage."


A spokesperson for BT Syntegra confirmed Agfa’s involvement: “The choice of the technical supplier was ours; in terms of meeting the requirements and deployment capabilities, we have got a lot of confidence that Agfa are the best choice. This will be a very collaborative effort, and we will all be working together."


BT Syntegra also confirmed that Philips remain BT’s sub-contractor for PACS in London, subject to contract.


On 10 May the Department of Health issued a press release stating that GE Medical Systems had been awarded “the right to supply PACS" in three NPfIT clusters: with Fujitsu in the Southern cluster, and with Accenture in the Eastern and North East clusters.  Agfa was not named in any of the five LSP PACS contracts.


NHS IT Director General Richard Granger said that the best possible deals on PACS had been negotiated. “The Local Service Providers have worked with us to deliver the best possible value and first class performance.  Today’s announcement represents the best possible deal for the NHS." 


Although a national programme spokesperson said that the May announcement had been subject to contractual agreement, there was no such caveat in the version that was available on the NPfIT website until today – other than with regard to BT and Philips in London.


Both GE Medical Systems and Agfa referred all questions back to NPfIT, with GE citing confidentiality clauses signed.


The change in line-up became apparent when EHI was forwarded an NPfIT internal document.  In it Martyn Forrest, regional implementation director for the North East cluster states: “Following a rigorous and robust procurement process, it has been decided that Agfa represents the best overall option for both clusters, both in terms of quality and value for money.”


Forrest goes on to say: “It [Agfa’s PACS solution] is a tried and tested system and has been the choice of a number of trusts in the North East Cluster over the last few months.


“I now look forward to making progress with our PACS implementation and bringing its benefits to more patients and clinicians in our area.”


The question remains as to why GE Medical Systems looks certain to be replaced by Agfa when a deal appeared to have been done. One well informed source speculated that GE had problems with the terms and conditions in the PACS contracts. The national programme and its prime contractors are known to drive a very hard bargain on behalf of the NHS and GE would not be the first to draw back from the deals on offer. 


The source added that it was also unclear whether GE had actually yet signed a contract for the Southern cluster, but anticipated that this contract would be signed.  EHI’s enquiries to Fujitsu had yet to receive a response by the time of publication.


Siemens, a surprise absentee on the initial list of preferred bidders in May, say there has been a “disappointing though understandable” lack of engagement with the national programme since the first announcement. The company remains firmly engaged with the NHS through its involvement with PFI projects and sales of its modalities.

 

Commenting on the changes in the North East and Eastern regions, Peter Harrison, managing director of Siemens Healthcare, said it was particularly interesting to see that a company like GE – which he described as robust and professional – had seemingly failed to agree terms.

 

“I wonder whether the terms, tariff and scope don’t represent the makings of a viable deal?” he queried.

If Agfa does replace GE as PACS supplier in two clusters it would appear to represent something of a false start for the three-year PACS implementation programme, which is due to start this summer.  The first wave of implementations in acute English NHS trusts is scheduled for completion by end of December 2004.  The national programme said, however, there would be no changes to the delivery schedules as the requirements were in the prime contractors’ contracts.

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