C&W win NHS email and directory contract

Cable & Wireless is the new contractor appointed to manage central e-mail and directory services for the NHS, the Department of Health (DH) announced today.

E-Health Insider reported in March this year that the previous £91m contract with EDS had been cancelled amid suggestions that the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) was not happy with the system EDS had produced.

Any dispute surrounding the cancellation appears to have been smoothed over, however, and the DH’s statement today said:“The NHS National Programme for IT and EDS have settled the dispute around EDS' E-mail and Directory Service (EMDS).  The settlement facilitated by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution has been achieved amicably without any attribution of blame to either party.”

It continued: “Since termination EDS has continued to provide electronic mail and directory services and the NPfIT wishes EDS to continue to do so until handover to Cable & Wireless.  As part of this settlement, arrangements for continuity of service and handing over the service to Cable & Wireless have been agreed so there will be no interruption of service to the NHS.”

It added that the terms of the settlement were confidential and that no further statement would be made.

The EMDS is one of the programmes being delivered by the national programme, though it started life with the NHS Information Authority and was handed over after the contract award was made.

The aim is to offer NHS in England staff a portable e-mail address for the lifetime of their work with the NHS, plus entry to a central directory designed to improve communication across NHS organisational boundaries.  Additional facilities include e-mail to fax, SMS text messaging and an on-line calendar, for managing time, tasks and resources, within and across NHS organisations.

Related reports:

Granger terminates EDS's NHSmail contract

EDS Signs $142m Deal for NHS Directory and e-Mail Service