Health trust dodges NPfIT with £2.4m iSoft deal

PAS masters

Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has rejected the National Programme for IT in choosing a supplier for the refresh of its patient administration system (PAS).

Under the National Programme for IT, health trusts in the southern cluster - where Heatherwood and Wexham is located - are due to be upgraded to the Cerner Millennium PAS. Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, however, has selected a PAS from health software company iSoft instead.

The system will cost the trust £2.4m over five years and will see the organisation take on iSoft's i.Patient Manager PAS as well as refreshing the installation of iSoft's i.Clinical Manager, which is already in use at the hospital.

The trust opted to go with iSoft rather than wait for a PAS update through the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

The rollout of PASes to health trusts has been beset by delays and the NPfIT contract with Fujitsu to install the systems for the southern cluster fell apart last year. While BT has taken over upgrade work for some of the trusts, the remainder have yet to be allocated a new supplier.