NHS Scotland awards network contract

NHS Scotland has awarded a contract worth up to £325m to provide a single public services network across the country, to a Capita and Updata collaboration.

In December last year, NHS National Services Scotland selected a preferred bidder for its Scottish Wide Area Network tender, but could not officially announce it due to ongoing legal issues with BT, which also bid for the contract.

However, last week an Edinburgh judge lifted the suspension preventing NHS Scotland from awarding the contract.

Chief executive of NHS NSS, Ian Crichton, said the public services network is a “major step forward” in improving the country’s infrastructure and will generate large savings for the public.

“Following extensive dialogue over the last year, I am pleased to announce the award of the SWAN Contract to Capita plc,” he said.

“This was the strongest bid and offers excellent value for money for the public purse.”

The six-year contract for the SWAN is estimated to save taxpayers £300,000 a month and will deliver a single shared network and common ICT infrastructure for all of Scotland’s public services.

The first phase of the programme involves the network being rolled out to NHS Scotland’s 22 health boards, Education Scotland and two consortiums of local councils in the north and south of Scotland.

The initial value of the contract is £110m, rising to a potential £325m as more public bodies take up the contract and more than 4,600 sites will be connected to the initial network including schools, hospitals, GP surgeries, pharmacists and local council offices.

BT served a summons on NHS Scotland late last year, claiming that the tender process was “flawed” and asking for a re-procurement or the company would seek £20m in damages.

At the time, an NHS Scotland spokesperson told EHI that the procurement process had been fair, robust and thorough. However, a BT spokesperson said the company had been “disappointed by NHS Scotland’s decision".

“Particularly since the existing N3 national communications network operating across the NHS in Scotland has delivered significant benefits over many years,” said the spokesperson.

The court case is ongoing, but earlier this month a judge ruled that NHS Scotland could award the contract. BT decided not to appeal the decision, but is pursuing £20m in damages against NHS Scotland.

Paul Pindar, Capita chief executive, said: “the SWAN initiative will enable infrastructure and service sharing, with aggregated demand delivering both cost and performance advantages.

“It is designed to help facilitate the creation of public services that are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to local needs,” he said.

Updata's managing director, Richard Bennett said the collaboration was able to shape a compelling offer by integrating Capita’s big-ticket managed services expertise with Updata's public sector networking experience.