Ninety GP practices and 108 sites in the Buckinghamshire Primary Care division will be covered by a new three-year £600,000 contract to provide management support and services.
The services, to be provided by Lynx Technology, include a helpdesk and onsite support for servers, desktops, IT hardware and network maintenance. The contract covers three primary care trusts: the Vale of Aylesbury; Chiltern and South Bucks and Wycombe.
GPs have traditionally purchased and contracted individually with IT companies for services but changes, notably the GMS contract review, passed responsibility for the funding and maintenance of practice systems to primary care trusts.
Lynx says the new contract offers a more joined-up support approach with the potential for cost savings provided by economies of scale. It says the service enables GPs to have access to professional services that minimise downtime and improve efficiency.
A spokesman told E-Health Insider the Buckinghamshire contract was not the first of its kind but was at the larger end of the scale. He said he believed this type of agreement was a trend for the future.
Kevin Garthwaite, associate director of health informatics, Vale of Aylesbury PCT said: “We went out to find an IT solutions and services provider that understood the constraints of working in IT with the NHS but could also draw on wide experience from other sectors. We were also looking for a company with a genuine interest in developing a partnership approach to managed services.”