Talks over BT role in London primary care systems

BT may drop responsibility for delivering new primary care systems in London and focus on building an integration engine for existing systems, EHI Primary Care understands.

The local service provider for London is in contract talks about the GP solution that could see it end its responsibility to deliver new primary care systems in the capital, according to industry sources.

The LSP and the London Programme for IT have confirmed they are reviewing the GP solution but said BT’s commitments under its contract remain unchanged.

BT’s preferred provider for primary care is INPS. It had installed a hosted version of INPS’s Vision 3 in 85 London practices by the middle of this year. It was also in talks to bring in EMIS as an alternative.

However, EHI Primary Care has learned that since the vast majority of London practices are already on EMIS or INPS under the GP Systems of Choice initiative, the LSP and LPfIT see little point in offering the system outside GPSoC.

Approximately 1,100 practices in the capital are EMIS users and another 300 use INPS under GPSoC. The remainder, just over 10% of the total, are on other systems.

LPfIT and BT are working to develop a shared patient record for London which is likely to see EMIS and INPS interoperate with the LSP’s other “best of breed” solutions, CSE Servelec’s RiO for the mental health and community sectors and Cerner Millenium for the acute sector.

A statement issued by BT said the company still had responsibility for delivery of new primary care systems in London. However it added: “BT, the Local Service provider for London, and the London Programme for IT are currently reviewing the GP solution in order to ensure that the future provision of IT systems to GP practices meets the changing needs of primary care in London.”

A spokesperson for LPfIT said: “NHS London Programme for IT is currently reviewing with BT certain elements of the GP component of the LSP contract within London.

“These discussions are very much at an early stage. BT is fully committed to delivering all of its obligations under the LSP contract which remains unchanged.”