Funding for the GP Systems of Choice initiative will come from existing Connecting for Health funds rather than new funds, with the scheme still awaiting Treasury approval.
Dr Gillian Braunold, joint GP clinical lead for CfHonnecting for Health, told EHI Primary Care last week that the business case has not yet been signed off by Treasury, and confirmed that the scheme will be funded "within existing CfH budgets".
The clarification on funding comes as the OJEU procurement for GP systems of choice reaches Best and Final Offer stage with a decision now due to be taken in July, slightly later than the April then May deadlines previously indicated.
The OJEU notice was published by CfH on 13 February, with the expectation it would be completed within 90 days.
By May the procurement had got down to a long list of nine different suppliers, and a two day evaluation of suppliers took place at Connecting for Health’s headquarters in Leeds in front of a panel which included PCT IT leads, regional IT leads GPs and CfH personnel.
Speaking at the British Computer Society’s Primary Health Care Specialist Group conference last week, Dr Braunold said: "We’re now at BAFO stage of GPSoC. We’re at the stage where we’ll soon be ready to allow practices to make choices on what they want out of GP IT."
She added: "They can either confirm they want to stay with the supplier they love or there is an opportunity to move to a new supplier."
Dr Braunold said that of the suppliers involved in the procurement none were currently beyond level one of the GPSoc ladder of accreditation
She stressed that GPSoc would allow GPs and practices to move at different speeds towards a shared objective: "GPs will be able to maintain choice and move at their own pace. Systems integrated across primary and secondary care is where we are headed to."
The GP Systems of Choice scheme, designed to meet the commitment in the April 2004 GP General Medical Services (nGMS) contract to provide a choice of practice systems was first promised in March 2005, then again in March 2006.
Prior to the current GPSoC plan a 2005 scheme had been mooted for wider GP choice by allowing practices to access any system so long as it had a contract with an LSP. This was eventually scrapped because it could not be made to work and it was decided it would not offer the NHS value for money.
A major part of the delay has been to square the nGMS contract commitment with the contracts awarded to Local Service Providers by Connecting for Health, which were based on one preferred supplier.
In the case of the contract awarded to Computer Sciences Corporation’s LSP contract for the North West and West Midlands provision of GP systems is understood to have been inadvertently omitted, with the requirement only finally being reinstated when CSC took over the LSP contracts for the North-east and Eastern clusters from Accenture.
Links
Nine companies in GP systems beauty parade
OJEU notice signals start of GP systems procurement