BT on track to get southern Cerner trusts

British Telecom is on track to take over responsibility of the eight southern NHS trusts running Cerner Millennium from Fujitsu, with an agreement now likely to be reached in August.

At the launch of the NHS Informatics Review last week Gordon Hextall, acting head of NHS Connecting for Health, told E-Health Insider that negotiations were proceeding with BT to take over the Cerner trusts in the South.

The CfH boss told EHI: “We are talking to BT currently and hope to complete talks next month. It is for BT to then say ‘we are content to do the work at the price’.”

Hextall added: “The aim is to do the whole thing so that by November we have Fujitsu transition out.” He gave no details on who would then be responsible for the trusts in the south currently without a local service provider (LSP).

The need for a replacement prime contractor for the NHS National Programme for IT in the south of England was triggered by Fujitu’s departure as LSP for the south on 28 May after almost a year of contract renegotiations.

Hextall confirmed that Fujitsu may now, however, keep responsibility for picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) – following the pattern set by Accenture two years ago when it exited the NPfIT programme. “Fujitsu have indicated that they now want to keep PACS,” he said any decision would be subject to price and negotiations.

Hextall told the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee on 16 July that the agency was in talks with the London local service provider, saying that it would be July before any takeover arrangements could be finalised.