Leicester chooses McKesson for payroll

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust has chosen McKesson as its payroll provider. The company will take over payroll at the trust and four others within a local payroll consortium in February next year.

The move follows a series of problems with the trusts’ former payroll provider, Capita, which included late and incomplete payments an “isolated incident” of staff records being found in the street.

Kate Bradley, the trust’s HR director, said that “despite a difficult history, we have maintained a good working relationship with Capita.”

However, she also said the “time was right to move to an alternative supplier; suited to dealing with the complex payroll system we need for our staff.”

The Capita contract was due to run to 2010. In a statement, the trust said it had been “mutually agreed” that “it is not in the best interests of either party” for it to continue until then. Bradley said: “It is time to draw a line under the problems of the past and start afresh.”

Police were called in after a small number of staff records were found in the street in Stevenage in March, but no charges were brought.

McKesson Shared Services will deliver the new service from its office in Glasgow. The trust said that to take services back in house “would have taken significantly longer”, and would not have been in the best interests of staff.

Adrian Wookey, vice president, service delivery at McKesson, said its shared services division was pleased to be working with the hospitals.

“Our service is provided exclusively to NHS organisations utilising the national HR and payroll system – the ESR – the successful implementation of which was completed by McKesson earlier this year,” he said.