Trusts told to end local PACS procurements

As first reported by E-Health Insider last week PACS will now be made a core service and existing trust PACS procurements will have to be ended with immediate effect, no matter how good the deals they are able to negotiate outside NPfIT contracts.

In a 15 September letter to all cluster senior responsible officers and regional implementation directors, Margaret Edwards, the Department of Health’s director of access, confirms the decision of the National Programme Board to make PACS “a core service within the National Programme for IT (NPfIT)".

The letter states:  “The decision to make this a ‘core service’ means that with immediate effect, trusts should not therefore, enter into, or continue with their own procurements for PACS but plan for deployment of the systems as contracted for their cluster via the National Programme."

The letter offers no explanation as to why PACS has now suddenly been reclassified as a ‘core’ service’, but does refer to the fact that some trusts had progressed a long way with their own PACS procurements and suggests such independent procurements would have financial and integration consequences for the wider NHS.

As previously reported by E-Health Insider all NPfIT PACS contracts are based on exclusivity for the local service provider (LSP) and its PACS supplier.  Last week an NPfIT spokesperson told EHI. “In the case of PACS, where the aim is to roll out to 100% of acute trusts within three years, the prices assume that the solutions will be taken by all local health communities." 

The Edwards letter also appears to indicate that all existing PACS implementations in English NHS trusts will have to be replaced with the LSP provided PACS solutions, details of which, including prices, remain sketchy.   Trusts with PACS could face extremely high switching costs.

The Edwards letter says: “The background to this is that the contracts which have now been negotiated commit us to 100% coverage with the contracted service provider for each cluster.  However, to date this has not been a core service and as a result trusts have been able to enter into agreements with other service providers, despite the financial and integration consequences for the NHS as a whole." 

Edwards’ letter asks for the reclassification of PACS as a core service to be communicated to Strategic Health Authority and trust chief executives “as a matter of urgency as we aware that a number of trusts are currently involved in negotiations."