Microsoft deal with NHS England ends
Microsoft's agreement to provide technology to NHS employees in England has expired, after other countries in the UK let similar deals with the software maker lapse.
The rolling central licensing arrangement, called the NHS England Enterprise Agreement (NHS EA), ended in late May, the company said in a note on the NHS Resource Centre. The company said it hoped the situation could change by mid-June, suggesting that the agreement might be renewed.
"We are hoping to have further information on this agreement by the 15 June and will post all information on the NHS Resource Centre," Microsoft said. "We offer our sincere apologies for this inconvenience."
Benefits no longer open to under the scheme include the Home User Programme, which entitled eligible NHS employees to get a licensed copy of Office desktop applications to use on a home computer; and the Employee Purchase Programme, which offered up to 70 percent off Windows Vista upgrades and discounts on hardware, software and games.
The Enterprise Agreement provided software licences for desktops and laptops for certain Microsoft products across all of the health service's organisations in England, according to a FAQ from the software maker.
The recently-elected coalition government is gearing up to make cuts in public spending in an emergency budget on 22 June and has targeted IT services in particular as an area prime for trimming. While the Tories promised before the election to protect the NHS against spending cuts, the pledge applies to front-line services rather than back-end ones.
Connecting for Health (CfH), which administers NHS IT in England, did not respond to a request for comment as to whether the Microsoft contract would be renewed. In Wales, the Enterprise Agreement lapsed at the end of March 2009, according to Informing Healthcare, the Welsh equivalent to CfH.
"We are currently considering our future licensing options for desktop products," said Informing Healthcare in a statement. "This includes looking at the possibility of a pan-public sector Enterprise Agreement for Wales."
NHS Wales has signed its own agreement with Microsoft which provides NHS organisations with a framework for licence purchase. Welsh Local Health Boards are procuring licences through this agreement as required, according to Informing Healthcare. The Home User Programme and the Employee Purchase Programme are no longer open to NHS Wales employees.
Microsoft's agreement with NHS Scotland expired in June 2009. From that point, NHS employees no longer had a licensing agreement with Microsoft, and were asked to uninstall Microsoft Office that they had purchased through the Home User Programme. NHS Northern Ireland did not have an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft, but NHS NI organisations were entitled to participate in volume licensing agreements through the UK Treasury's Office of Government Commerce.