NHS 'data spine' contract awarded

The NHS is set to reveal the successful bidder for one of the key contracts in the £2.3bn IT modernisation of the health service next week.

BT and IBM are competing for the central 'data spine' contract, which will provide the infrastructure for the integrated single electronic patient record scheme. US vendor Lockheed Martin withdrew from the bidding in September as some providers privately said contract terms are too harsh on suppliers.

Richard Granger, director general of NHS IT, revealed that details of the contract award will be announced next week while speaking at a Prince's Trust Technology Leadership Group event on Tuesday evening – but he remained typically tight-lipped about who that would be.

Granger also hit out at the cost of software and, in a thinly-veiled attack on Microsoft, referring to a "west coast software company – and I'm not talking about Lytham St Annes – who make spreadsheet software", he said he expected more than just a few percentage points discount when buying 800,000 licences.

He described the software industry in general as being similar to the telecoms industry pre-privatisation where the customer is treated more as a victim.

"The cost of software is going to become several orders of magnitude lower than it is now. I don't value the IP in the same way they do," he said.

In his vision of the modernised NHS, Granger said five billion transactions a year will be carried out electronically, replacing the current 'postcard' patient experience where information is moved around by mouth, phone and post.

"That's going to massively change the way the NHS operates," he said.

Granger also hit back at those who raised security issues about electronically storing and transmitting highly-confidential patient data, saying that it will be more secure than the current method of using the postal service. "There is scope for improvement," he said.