Granger secures commitment to fund NPfIT
Comment: Jon Hoeksma, E-Health Insider For Richard Granger, NHS IT Director-General, the announcement of the award of three key contracts to deliver the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), provides a vindication of his management of the procurement phase of the programme and hardball negotiation tactics with suppliers on pricing. Although the extra £2.3 billion pledged […]
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Paying the price for success
As the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) procurements approach their climax the final few weeks of negotiations appear to have centred on the relentless push from the centre to drive down prices for systems, software and associated services. The challenge is to stretch to the limit the return on the £2.3 billion being invested nationally […]
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Analysts speculate on LSP contract awards
A US market analyst report obtained by E-Health Insider predicts that clinical applications vendor Cerner will win two of the Local Service Provider (LSP) contracts about to be awarded by the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), with two more going to iSoft, and one to IDX. Overall the 11 November SunTrust Robinson Humphrey document, suggests that […]
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OFT approves iSOFT-Torex merger
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has today, 7 November, approved the merger between the two leading UK health software application and services firms iSOFT and Torex. The OFT attached no conditions on the merger, plans for which were first announced in July 2003. Assuming the deal is approved by Torex shareholders the new firm will have a combined worth of […]
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Cerner CEO: contracts are ‘onerous but not outrageous’
With the award of the first Local Service Provider (LSP) contracts due within a month, one of the firms that looks set to win significant contracts is US healthcare applications vendor Cerner. Uniquely the firm is either leading or a prominent member of consortia in all five clusters, and is strongly tipped to win at […]
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Patient First Alliance no longer in National Programme
With barely a month to go before the first Local Service Provider (LSP) contracts are awarded Patient First Alliance (PFA) have been disqualified from the procurement competitions in the North West and North East, after failing to meet a Monday deadline to clarify their position. Their elimination leaves LSP consortia led by Cerner and Accenture […]
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E-Booking presented as a step towards patient-centred NHS
A new £64.5m national contract for e-booking between GP surgeries and acute hospitals in England was presented by the government as a key step towards achieving the aim of offering patients a choice of hospitals. Announcing the contract this week, health secretary, John Reid, said electronic booking was not about “some whizz kids’ obsession with […]
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National Programme to sign first contract
Tomorrow morning Secretary of State for Health John Reid and NHS IT director-general Richard Granger will announce that SchlumbergerSema offering a Cerner solution have been awarded the electronic appointment booking contract for the NHS. E-booking will be the first major supplier contract for the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) to be let. As previously reported […]
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Schlumberger-Sema Looks Set to Win E-Booking Contract
Schlumberger-Sema and its partner Cerner look set to emerge as the winner of the prestigious contract for a national electronic appointment booking system. The contract will be the first major systems procurement contract to be awarded by the National programme for IT in the NHS. Following the ‘de-selection’ last week of EDS from the e-booking […]
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Major Study of Healthcare IT Benefits Announced
A leading US policy think tank is to conduct a study to determine how much patient care could improve and how much money could be saved if healthcare professionals increased their use of information technology. The RAND Health study will focus on electronic records systems, clinical information sharing and clinical decision support tools. Richard Hillestad, […]
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