Accenture and CSC get £2bn Xmas present from NHS

CSC and Accenture have won contracts worth almost £2bn for the regional delivery of the NHS Care Records Service in England.

The two 10-year Local Service Provider (LSP) contracts will provide regional IT infrastructure to support the national electronic patient record system being developed by SchlumbergerSema and the 'data spine' that will be run by BT.

CSC has won the £973m contract for the North West and West Midlands region, while Accenture has won the £934m contract for the Eastern region – to add to its earlier £1.1bn contract award for the North East region.

Health Secretary John Reid claims the electronic care record service will "revolutionise" the way information is managed in the NHS.

Director General of NHS IT Richard Granger said in a statement that the contract awards mean the NHS' £5bn IT programme is still pretty much on target, despite its aggressive timescales.

"We are very pleased that contracts have been awarded in line with the schedule we committed to in January this year," he said. "Our focus now moves to the challenge of ensuring the timely delivery of high quality services, which we will approach in a similar vein, with attention to clear plans, clear milestones and effective partnership working."