Embattled Australian healthcare application provider, iSOFT, has extended its contract for patient (PAS) and clinical administration systems with seven NHS trusts in London and the south of England for five years. The deal with the group, known as the iSOFT7, is worth EUR: 12.6m to iSOFT in total (EUR:4.8m for licence fees and EUR:7.8m for maintenance and support). Rumour has it CSC will receive a similar amount for hosting the application centrally. The trusts, including Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Kings College Hospital and Guys and St Thomas', signed the original deal with CSC and iSOFT in 2006. At the time they chose to stick with iSOFT's PAS, which they have now been using for over ten years, rather than take the Cerner application being provided by the National Programme for IT in the NHS (NPfIT) in their region.
iSOFT will no doubt be pleased to have maintained its relationship with the prestigious NHS Trusts that make up the iSOFT7. But it's hard to say whether the Trusts' decision is a vote of confidence in iSOFT's software, or just a vote of no confidence in the other NPfIT applications on offer and a realisation that changing PAS now would be too disruptive (and, perhaps, expensive). Indeed, iSOFT's own press release quotes Colin Sweeney, Director of IT at King's College, as saying "this is the best result possible as it causes the least disruption."
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