Letter from BT Health
We welcome the opportunity to provide the Committee
of Public Accounts with a full view of BT's upcoming scheduled
activities in London.
To date, BT has deployed functionality to 26
Trusts at over 250 unique sites across all settings. This includes,
of course, our work at the Spine-connected Queen Mary's Sidcup
(QMS) Trust and BT is placed to enhance PAS and A&E functionality
at QMS in September 2006.
This year, BT is currently forecast to provide
substantial functionality in London, including 21 PASs, three
of which are in Acute Trusts. A summary list follows:
— Nine Theatre deployments (with five
from July-October).
— Five Mental Health deployments, each
with full PAS (with three from July-October).
— 13 Community Health deployments,
each with full PAS (with four from July-October).
— 22 Picture Archicing and Communications
Systems (electronic transmission of X-Rays) deployments (with
seven from July-October).
— Six Radiology Information Systems
(with 4 from July-October).
— 10 Child Health deployments (all
currently deployed).
— One Pharmacy Stock Control deployments
(currently deployed).
— Two Single Assessment Programme deployments
(with one from July-October).
— One Pathology System (planned for
November).
— One Electronic Data Management solution
(planned for August).
— 72 General Practice deployments.
As you know, many of the London Trusts made
a significant investment in IT capability in the years running
up to the roll out of the NHS CfH programme resulting in relatively
high levels of existing clinical functionality. This has led to
a need to prioritise implementations differently in London and
to provide early help to those areas of the Service in London
that have not benefitted from such investment (hence the above
list).
In other parts of the country, many hospitals
are receiving interim systems, to provide at least some level
of improvement, to be followed in the course of the programme
by the full system. In London, many of the systems are in place
are already at a relatively high level of funtionality, and we
need to be in a position to provide a significantly enhanced level
of system of functionality for them to achieve a real benefit
for PAS systems in Acute Trusts. Consequently, BT brought forward
the strategic product to effect three deployments in November
to December, rather than using interim products to make earlier
deliveries. For this reason, BT will not deploy any further PAS
systems for Acute Trusts prior to the end of October this year.
The associated schedule is subject to NHS/Trust planning assumptions,
and as always, BT continues to evaluate alternatives to improve
delivery performance and lower programme risks.
In addition to the PAS systems, BT has, and
will, continue to deploy significant clinical functionality this
year—some of which is associated with each PAS system deployment
go live (eg Request and Results Reporting, Maternity and A&E).
We would like to take this opportunity to put
on record BT's continuing firm commitment to the National Programme
overall, and the London LSP programme in particular. We look forward
to continuing the partnership approach and developing the supporting
institutions that we have in place with NHS CFH, with the London
Trusts and with the clinical community. Partnership working and
a close, mutual understanding of each stake-holder's thinking
are essential to the success of this programme.
23 June 2006
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