CfH changes tack on GP Systems of Choice

NHS Connecting for Health has decided to go out to tender for suppliers to take part in GP Systems of Choice (GPSoC).

An advertisement will be placed in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) once Treasury approval for the scheme has been received. It will mean on-going contract negotiations with individual GP suppliers to take part in GPSoC will be scrapped and instead suppliers will tender through the OJEU process.

CfH says it hopes the process will take three months following placement of the advertisement and believes the initiative is still on course for delivery on April 1, 2007.

GP IT supplier EMIS and its user group claims the decision could mean more delays in the delivery of choice of GP systems for practices which it has been campaigning for since 2004. EMIS has around 59% market share in England.  The company has signed a contact with CSC but no business has ever been routed through the contract. 

Dr Manpreet Pujara, chair of the EMIS National User Group, said he was informed about the decision to place an advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) two days after CfH’s latest GP Pan User Group (GP PUG) meeting.

In an email to CfH GP clinical leads Drs Gillian Braunold and Professor Mike Pringle Dr Pujara claimed there has been “considerable prevarication on the issue of GP Choice and the funding of IT systems”.

He added: “On the face of its this [the OJEU procurement] could be seen as another delaying tactic by CfH to honour a commitment made on GP Choice by the health minister in March 2004.”

Dr Pujara also claimed NUG members were still facing pressure from primary care trusts to move from EMIS to systems financed by local service providers as part of CfH contracts.

He told Drs Braunold and Pringle: “As our GP champions I was under the impression that you were chosen to represent the profession yet I see you standing on the sidelines whilst my members are being coerced into changing to other systems.”

In response the GP clinical leads told Dr Pujara that they understood the frustration felt by user groups but that the contractual and political complexities meant the project was taking more time to complete than they themselves had initially hoped.

They added: “We remain fully committed to GPSoC and we are confident that a satisfactory outcome can be achieved. There are still obstacles to overcome but there is commitment from the GPSoC team and suppliers to overcome these obstacles.”

They added: “Our role is not to advocate for any one supplier or their user group but to ensure the best interests of general practitioners.”

The two GP clinical leads claimed the advantages of an OJEU advertised procurement are that:

• it standardises and simplifies all contractual arrangements because it will not reply on amending existing contracts

• it will introduce transparency into the process of choosing a GP clinical system

• it means that PCTs and practices will not have to run separate procurements to procure new GP systems in future – instead they can select a new system from the framework

• a direct relationship between each supplier and DH/NHS CfH will enable central payment of invoices for the core services and enables us to get best value for the NHS.

Dr Pujara told last week’s EMIS NUG conference that the user group also had existing concerns about the proposed contracts for GPSoC which it had been raising with CfH. He said it was unknown whether these would be addressed by the standard contract offered through OJEU.

Concerns included clauses which Dr Pujara said meant that suppliers would be expected to hand over personal data to the authority or PCT at any time without the consent of the practice or patient. Dr Pujara said the contract would also give PCTs the power to terminate the contract with the supplier at three months’ notice without any prior discussion with the practices.

Sean Riddell, managing director of EMIS, said the company had no objection to OJEU procurement in principle but was frustrated by the delay. He added: “The National Audit Office said Connecting for Health’s speed for finalising contracts was exemplary and yet two health ministers later GPs are still waiting and now we seem to have Plan C.”

Kemi Adenubi, CfH programme director for GPSoC, told EHI Primary Care that she believed the OJEU procurement could be completed in three months. However she said the ‘real unknown’ was how much longer it would take to receive Treasury approval. She added: “We hope it will come in the next month or so although it’s very hard to predict.”

A spokesperson for NHS Connecting for Health told EHI Primary Care that the GPSoC initiative has made significant progress with support from existing suppliers.

He added: “In order to keep the exercise of choice simple, and to ensure value for money, it is intended to replace the numerous different contracting mechanisms that are currently used with a GPSoC Framework contract between the Department of Health and the suppliers. PCTs, on behalf of practices, would then enter into “call off” contracts with suppliers based on the terms of the framework contract.

“We are advised that, for the future, this approach would require an OJEU procurement – which can normally be achieved in three months. However, like all proposals with financial implications, GPSoC is subject to the approval of a business case. Subject to that approval, the aim continues to be implementation from April 2007.”

A previous scheme to widen GP choice by allowing practices to access any system so long as it had a contract with an LSP was first mooted in 2005 but scrapped because it could not be made to work and it was decided it would not offer the NHS value for money.

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