Xansa, the IT services company, has been recommended as the preferred partner for a joint venture to provide finance and accounting services to the NHS in England, it was announced this week.
The 50:50 deal with the Department of Health (DH), which will run over 10 years, is expected to start in April 2005 and is reported to be worth about £250m to Xansa.
The joint venture will inherit work started by the NHS Shared Service Initiative (SSI) which was originally set to become a special health authority in April 2003 with a remit to manage all NHS finance and accounting functions on a mandatory basis.
This strategy was abandoned and a voluntary scheme put in its place has seen just 35 NHS organisations out of a total of 663 sign up for services. However, the economies of shared services are attractive and there is thought to be a market for them in the NHS, especially among smaller organisations.
Offices in Leeds and Bristol were set up by the SSI and staff working in them will be transferred over to Xansa, a spokesman confirmed.
Financial and accounting services in the NHS in England are thought to cost about £1 billion and Xansa and the DH will need to capture about half the market to generate the reported revenues.
Xansa’s chief executive, Alastair Cox, commented: “This opportunity sits at the heart of our strategy to grow in the Government sector and reinforces our existing leadership position in the provision of finance and accounting services. Working with the Department of Health, we will deliver significant and tangible benefits that are able to be channelled to front line patient care."
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