Doubts mount over acute ASCC funding

NHS hospital trusts in the south of England have been told that they are unlikely to receive any central funding through a planned new Additional Supply Capability and Capacity procurement, E-Health Insider has been told.

Community providers have meanwhile been advised that the ASCC community investment business case, believed to be worth up to £85m, remains on the minister’s desk and should be approved over the summer.

The contrasting guidance was provided as a workshop for NHS IT executive leads run by NHS South East Coast held at the end of June on the implications of the new government’s policies. Although attendees said they were told the ASCC community investment business case was “likely” to be approved, the outlook for hospital trusts was bleaker.

Trusts were also told that community was the priority and that subsequent funding streams, such as those for acute trusts were unlikely to go ahead. Although no formal guidance has been issued trusts EHI spoke to all believed that hospitals could no longer count on NPfIT funding.

According to one trust IT executive lead said it was “a very downbeat presentation that left little doubt that trusts should not rely on the ASCC for any significant acute investments.”

NHS South Central, NHS South East Coast and Connecting for Health provided EHI with matching responses when asked whether new ASCC procurements would now happen. They said: "The ASCC procurements are being reviewed, along with other elements of the National Programme for IT.”

NHS South Central said in a statement: “Throughout ASCC Trusts have had the freedom to move on. We believe ASCC is an opportunity to implement new solutions, not an obligation.” The statement said that there was no change in position.

Last summer, the Department of Health’s director general for informatics, Christine Connelly announced that NHS hospital trusts in the South of England not covered by the contract with BT following the exit of Fujitsu from the National Programme for IT would be offered a choice of centrally funded systems.

At a supplier event in November, she added that she wanted the formal procurement process for systems in the South to begin in January and to be complete by the beginning of April 2010.

However, NHS papers obtained by EHI from NHS South Central in January revealed that £800m out of the £1.2bn envelope for the south had already been spent raising doubts as to whether ASCC would make it through the general election.

One southern trust IT director told EHI: “Financially, ASCC was never going to survive the election and these meetings are just confirming what many of us already knew - that ASCC is dead and buried.

“The worst thing about this has been the uncertainty and not having a clue about whether systems will be free or not and now that seems to be over.”

The director of one supplier which had participated in the ASCC procurements, including exhibiting at the November supplier event, said: “What a horrible waste of time and money that was. It’s not just us, all the suppliers have been made to jump through another set of hoops.”

Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust told EHI: “It’s a shame that it wasn’t done four years ago but looking around us now it’s a real relief. It’s a big cost, but I wouldn’t hesitate to say that the advantages will outweigh the costs.”