Primary care system supplier EMIS looks likely to be included as part of the local service provider solution for London.
GP practices in London will have the option of INPS’s Vision 4 or EMIS, subject to the conclusion of contract negotiations.
Kevin Jarrold, director of the London Programme for IT (LPfIT) and chief information officer for NHS London, told a British Computer Society meeting last month that the IT strategy for London will include developing an option to retain EMIS alongside INPS.
In March he told a separate meeting that the outline proposal was to have 100% coverage in primary care between the two suppliers, INPS and EMIS, with a 40/60 respective split between them.
A spokesperson for BT, local service provider for London, told EHI Primary Care: “Since EMIS clinical systems are used by the majority of GPs within London it is entirely appropriate for BT to consider the provision of EMIS as part of the LSP solution within the capital. But nothing specific has yet been agreed with EMIS or LPfIT".
EMIS managing director Sean Riddell told EHI Primary Care that the plan was to retain EMIS alongside INPS as the primary care solution for London, subject to contract.
He added: “London is going for a pragmatic and deliverable best of breed solution underpinned by concepts of interoperability.”
Jarrold told the July meeting that talks with EMIS to be the alternative LSP solution in London followed the completion of contract renegotiations with LSP BT concluded in May.
Those contract renegotiations mean the LSP has moved from a holistic solution to best of breed with a shared patient record. The LSP solution is now for Cerner Millennium via three releases to all acute trusts, CSE Servelec’s RiO for mental health and community via four releases and INPS Vision 4 via three releases for GPs, plus the likely addition of EMIS as an alternative GP system. An integration layer will enable data sharing across care settings.
Jarrold said a social care solution was also being developed to support closer NHS and social care working.
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