E-Booking Project Reaches Short-List

The procurement process for an NHS electronic bookings system reached a key milestone last week when bidders for the £40-50 million contract learned who had made it onto the short-list. E-booking forms one of the four main strands of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in the NHS.

Although yet to be officially announced the three firms short-listed by the National Programme for the project were Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Fujitsu, and Schlumberger-Sema/Cerner. Leading technology firms that were not included on the short-list included IBM, BT, Logica and Torex.

All of the firms involved in bidding on the e-bookings project are thought to be likely to feature prominently in delivering the National Programme and are among the leading contenders to become Local Service Providers (LSPs) or National Application Service Providers (NASPs).

All three firms short-listed will now be required to build a working e-bookings system by October prior to final selection and contract award. E-Health Insider understands that each of the short-listed solutions selected takes a very different approach to addressing the same problem.

E-booking will mean that GPs can electronically book a patient’s hospital referral at a time and location of the patient’s choice, rather than having send a referral letter to the hospital and then wait for another letter back before letting patients know the date of their appointment with a consultant.

The NHS Plan says that by 2005 patients will be able to choose their booking dates for all hospital appointments and admissions – though it does not specify whether the systems used must be electronic