System C has announced that it has signed a contract with Fujitsu to support its work implementing the NHS Care Records Service in the southern region of England stretching from Kent to Cornwall.

The contract, which takes effect immediately, will mean that System C healthcare IT specialist staff will work directly with Fujitsu’s deployment teams in the rollout of NHS CRS in the southern cluster as part of the National Programme for IT.

Dr Ian Denley, CEO of System C, said: "This is an exciting time for System C to be involved in the deployment of the National Programme within the southern cluster. We are looking forward to a successful relationship with Fujitsu in the deployment of their new systems using our experience gained from working within the NHS IT sector for over fourteen years."

E-Health Insider understands that a range of staff with expertise across the board will be sent to augment the Fujitsu deployment team, including project managers and informatics experts. The value of the contract and its length were not disclosed by Connecting for Health.

System C is based in Maidstone and employs around 180 staff, and has aided in the installation of IT systems at over 130 NHS Trusts.

As well as holding the new support contract with Fujitsu, the company is also subcontracted as part of the CSC Alliance, the LSP for the North-west and West Midlands cluster, to provide design, build, test and deployment services until 2009.

Maz Kostuch, deployment director at Fujitsu Services, NHS Account, said: "System C is a company with excellent people and know-how in the UK healthcare market."