Brexit hits IT costs for NHS

Brexit is starting to hit trusts already stretched IT budgets, with prices jumping in a matter of days as the currency remains volatile.

Several big US tech suppliers, including Apple and Microsoft, have announced prices rises after the UK voted to leave the EU on 23 June.

Microsoft announced last month that as of 1 January, 2017, the price on its enterprise software and most cloud services will increase by 13% and 22% respectively.

It has been reported that Apple will increase its prices on hardware by up 25%, although neither tech giant explicitly acknowledge Brexit as the cause of the rise.

Senior NHS IT staff who spoke to Digital Health News said other suppliers have also been bumping up prices or offering quotes that are valid for as little as 24 hours.

One IT source reported the cost of data storage had increased by £15,000, while there were also reports that a trust has been forced to pay an extra £150,000 for new radiology system after a post-Brexit price rise.

Quoted prices changed so quickly that it was often difficult to get approval before they had risen, Digital Health News was told.

“All of this has happened because of the instability of the currency post-Brexit,” one source said.

A senior NHS IT source said his trust had thousands of iPads, all of which would need be replaced in the next few years.

“If you project the increases across the NHS it could be quite scary.”

Most suppliers that Digital Health News contacted did not respond to request for comment.

In a statement, US-based electronic patient record supplier Cerner said it had not changed either its prices or conditions since the EU referendum result.

“The system and solutions offered locally remain the same and we have not changed the conditions related to any product or service in use.”

Cisco does not deal directly with trusts as a supplier but the company’s operations director for healthcare and local government, Terry Espiner, said price adjustments had been made to reflect the currency volatility.

At one stage after referendum, price quoted were only valid for 24 hours but this had since risen, he said.

“It's not just IT, it’s marmite, it’s crisps,” he said. “There is an impact that is challenging.”

Espiner said the company was working with several trusts to alleviate the pressure associated with currency volatility.

“We will do out level best to make sure trusts can continue with projects.”

One of the solutions Espiner suggested was financing IT through Cisco capital, which can be used to spread out and fix the cost of IT infrastructure.

Neither NHS Digital and NHS England would comment on the IT price increases or whether it had been taken in consideration in funding allocation of structure.

A spokeswoman for the commissioning body referred all questions on to individual trusts.