Contract negotiations underway for system choice

Contracts have been sent to GP system suppliers due to taking part in the ‘system choice’ initiative for GPs and negotiations are taking place on a weekly basis to ensure commercial arrangements are in place.

Progress on the moves to make system choice a reality for practices was reported by Connecting for Health joint clinical lead for general practice, Dr Gillian Braunold to a meeting for GPs and practice staff organised jointly with the NHS Alliance last week.

Dr Braunold explained to EHI Primary Care that an initial meeting with the Treasury had been held where approval had been given for an “envelope” of resources needed to make the system choice plan work.

“We are currently firming up the contracts with suppliers,” she said.

After the contracts are agreed, she told the meeting: “Treasury have to see the full business case when everything is tied up. This is work in progress.”

The plans were first announced at Healthcare Computing 2006. The initiative, known as GP Systems of Choice (GPSoC), is broken down into two parts. Capital funding will be provided to PCTs from 5 April to enable practices’ hardware to be upgraded to meet and continue to meet minimum standards for infrastructure to set by Connecting for Health.

In addition ongoing revenue costs for existing systems will be met directly by Connecting for Health. This is the element of the agreement still subject to Treasury approval.

The 12 suppliers lined up are: Accenture, Ascribe, Capital Care Alliance, CSC Alliance, EMIS, Fujitsu Alliance, Healthy Software, In Practice Systems, iSoft, Microtest, Seetec and The Phoenix Partnership.

Dr Braunold explained to the meeting there would be three routes open to practices:

• Move to the GP clinical system(s) offered by their local service providers (LSPs)

• Keep their existing GP clinical system, undergoing upgrades when they become available

• Move to another existing GP clinical suppliers’ system included within the GPSoC scheme.

She listed key benefits expected from the new system including the hope that GPs using existing systems will now demand the best possible interfaces with National Programme for IT. “GPs won’t feel threatened anymore and will make sure their interfaces with the NPfIT are maximised,” she said.

Funding for upgrades of existing systems will flow from the strategic health authorities to the primary care trusts and will be performance managed, Dr Braunold said, adding that discussion were being held with chief information officers and chairs of Professional Executive Committees on how to achieve this.

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