System C to provide CfH with deployment specialists

Health software and consultancy firm System C Healthcare has signed a major new contract to provide healthcare IT deployment specialists to the government’s NHS Connecting for Health agency.

Under a framework contract with consultancy services specialist QI Consulting, System C will provide specialist support to NHS Connecting for Health’s central deployment support team, an arm of the agency responsible for helping NHS Trusts implement National Programme for IT systems and transfer knowledge and skills to trust staff.

Details of the contract value were not released. The company said the deal was a performance-based framework agreement which allows NHS Connecting for Health to draw on the company’s specific specialist expertise to support trusts prepare for and go live with NPfIT systems.

System C’s consultants are already working directly for two of the three local service providers (LSPs) Computer Sciences Corporation in the North and Fujitsu Services in the South of England. They have also worked for a number of NHS trusts on helping them implement new IT systems.

The company says it has helped implement a range of NPfIT solutions in areas such as patient administration, child health, primary care, theatres, results reporting, order communications, Single Assessment Process (SAP), Picture Archiving (PACS) and decision support systems.

System C employees each have an average of over 15 years’ healthcare computing experience covering all aspects of implementation including design, programme/project management, data migration, interfacing, testing, training and user support. For NHS Connecting for Health, they will be delivering practical hands-on assistance resolving issues, sharing experience and filling short-term resource gaps.

Clare Mitchell, chief deployment officer at NHS CfH said: “System C has successfully begun to support Trusts in robustly preparing for go-lives, through being an integral part of the deployment team available for SHAs to call on. This framework lets us apply their considerable knowledge and experience directly to help trusts meet their rollout plans for the coming year.”

System C CEO, Ian Denley, said: “The National Programme is clearly accelerating and there has been a significant increase in the number of acute deployments over recent months. The forward plan is very exciting and we are extremely pleased to be able to support NHS Connecting for Health deployments in such a direct manner.”