Fujitsu may lose southern NHS PACS deal

Fujitsu may not have its contract renewed to provide Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) services to NHS trusts in the south of England.

The development comes two weeks after Fujitsu had its £1.1bn contract as local service provider (LSP) for the region terminated on 28 May, following its withdrawal from contract re-negotiations. Fujitsu had previously been expected to get the lucrative PACS deal renewed.

When the LSP contract was terminated, the linked PACS contract was also ended, leaving NHS trusts across the south with systems that were not covered by formal support contracts.

E-Health Insider has been told that as a result, key clinical systems in the region – including PACS, Radiology Information Systems (RIS), child health, Map of Medicine and Cerner Millennium – are only covered by a “promise” of support from the ex-LSP.

EHI has learned that NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CfH) originally indicated that it would renew its contract with Fujitsu to provide PACS services after terminating Fujitsu’s LSP contract.

This would have followed the pattern set in September 2006, when Accenture walked as LSP in the North and North East of England, but still retained its PACS contracts.

In a 28 May letter to NHS chief executives in the south about the ending of Fujitsu’s LSP contract, Gordon Hextall, head of NHS CfH said: “However, the PACS and RIS contracts are not expected to be affected by this outcome.”

The agency now appears to have reversed its position and to be proceeding on the assumption the terminated PACS contract will not be renewed.

Internal NHS correspondence seen by EHI states that the NHS CfH PACS team have now been added to the CfH Exit team, the team planning the ‘transition’ arrangements away from Fujitsu.

EHI has also learned that as a consequence of the move to terminate Fujitsu’s PACS/RIS contract, a major disaster recovery test due to have happened early in June has had to be cancelled, because it was determined that the supplier had no legal basis to carry it out.

Sources indicate that legal advice on ‘reputation’, as part of the larger Fujitsu LSP contract termination, have played a significant factor in the decision by NHS CfH to end Fujitsu’s PACS/RIS contract.

NHS CfH declined to confirm whether the contract had been terminated or was still in place, citing commercial considerations and legal factors. Instead the agency issued a statement to EHI saying: "Both parties are currently discussing the provision of PACS and RIS services and we would not wish to comment further at this stage.”

PACS was not included in the original £896m LSP deal awarded to Fujitsu in January 2004, but added ten months later.

Fujitsu sub-contracted with GE to deliver PACS to the then 42 NHS hospital trusts in the south in a £110m deal running to 2013. Delivery of PACS, linked to a central data store, had been considered as one of the great successes of the NHS IT programme in the south.

The leadership of NHS CfH is reported to have been severely unhappy at Fujitsu’s unexpected decision to quit the programme by placing itself in breach of contract.

This contrasted with the mutually agreed negotiated exit by Accenture in 2006. Following the termination of the contract on 28 May the initial Exit Plan submitted by Fujitsu was rejected by NHS CfH as “unsatisfactory”.

Links

GE wins £110m PACS contract for South of England

Accenture pulls out of national programme