Granger says he wants ‘catalogue’ of additional suppliers

The boss of the NHS IT agency Connecting for Health (CfH) has said that he intends to create a catalogue of suppliers able to provide additional capacity and systems to help deliver the late-running £6bn National Programme for NHS IT.

The intention appears to be to increase capacity and plug gaps in key specialist systems, to buy some breathing space for its strategy of relying on two key sub-contractors to successfully develop new integrated clinical and electronic patient record software, an approach now running two years late.

Tendering for framework deals to provide extra capacity, such as local clinical systems and installation expertise, may begin in the next few weeks. There is, however, no indication that CfH is willing to countenance allowing NHS trusts to choose key patient administration and clinical systems other than iSoft and Cerner – the systems offered by its prime contractors.

The announcement conveniently follows severe supplier problems, lengthy delays in the delivery of key systems and last week’s departure of prime contractor Accenture in two regions. Other recent problems have included sub-contractor iSoft’s financial difficulties with the company running two years late in delivering its Lorenzo product, and the replacement of GE Healthcare (formerly IDX) in the London and Southern regions

The Damascene change of approach was outlined by CfH director Richard Granger in an interview with his preferred trade magazine, Computing. CfH has previously ruled out framework or catalogue contract deals.

Sources have told EHI that there are two main camps within the agency: ‘believers’, who remained wedded to the single solutions approach; and ‘pragmatists’, who believe a wider range of suppliers must be involved in NHS IT modernisation.

‘I want to refresh our store of contingency,’ he told Computing. ‘We are three years into the programme, in an immature marketplace, with a large amount of work in front of us and in an ecosystem of prime and subcontractors that all have challenges in terms of pace and capacity.

The immaturity of the health IT market is a favorite recurring theme of the NHS IT boss who last week predicted that there would be huge consolidation in the market with existing suppliers bought or merged. He did not directly relate this theme to Accenture’s negotiated exit from its NHS contracts.

Industry sources told E-Health Insider that they welcomed a catalogue approach, but pointed out that it flew in the face of the mired CfH strategy of standardised single solutions delivered to all trusts across NHS regions – supplied by Cerner in the South and London and iSoft in the three northern regions.

One source told EHI that while there might be room for more specialised clinical systems, such as ambulance and pathology, it was impossible to see CfH allowing trusts to choose their own PAS or CRS solution “because they might well make the wrong choice and vote with their feet”.