Fujitsu’s exit may hasten systems choice

Long term system choice for GPs could have moved a step nearer with the departure of local service provider (LSP) Fujitsu, according to primary care IT representatives.

Last week Connecting for Heath terminated Fujitsu’s £896m contract as LSP for the South, leaving question marks over who might take over and how it will affect development of IT systems across primary and secondary care.

Ewan Davis, former chairman of the British Computer Society’s Primary Healthcare Specialist Group, said that system choice already de facto existed in the South as Fujitsu did not have a contract to supply a primary care system. He said choice was likely to be an element in any future deal.

Davis told EHI Primary Care: “I think that whoever takes over as the LSP will be seeking to integrate their hospital solutions with any of the systems that GPs choose to take up and that is the way it should be. Where we will get to eventually is where we should have been in the first place with a small, meaningful choice of systems.”

Front runners to take over in the South include existing LSPs BT and CSC. BT, LSP for London, is currently reviewing its GP solution with the likely outcome expected to be the addition of EMIS alongside INPS as GP solutions.

Dr Paul Cundy from the Joint IT Committee of the BMA and Royal College of General Practitioners also argues that choice of system will be strengthened by Fujitsu’s departure as he believes acute systems of choice will be introduced and the principle of choice across NHS IT underlined.

He said: “What will be interesting to see is the response of trusts and PCTs to this. They have faced enormous political pressure to take national programme products but now there is no LSP they might start to work outside the programme and that could set the precedent for other areas.”

Dr Grant Ingrams, also from the Joint IT Committee, said he hoped wider choice would be an outcome of the Fujitsu departure although he argued it could also lead to near monopoly situation if CSC were to take over as LSP for the south.

He added: “With a single solution you lose the lever to get the software developer to maintain their software. We see that even with some of the National Programme bolt-ons like Choose and Book where the software is a bit poor and clunky but it’s difficult to get the companies to do anything about it.”

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, a GP negotiator and IT lead for the general Practitioner Committee, told EHI primary Care that he hoped the Department of Health would learn lessons from what had happened and ensure there was a smooth hand over to whoever replaced Fujitstu.

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Primary care following Fujitsu