NHS goes all-electronic for scans and X-rays

The NHS is to roll out a nationwide all-electronic system for scans and X-rays by slashing costs in a bulk-buy deal.

The Health Minister, John Hutton, has announced suppliers for the Picture Archiving and Communications System, (PACS) for the 178 NHS Acute Trusts in the UK as part of the £6.2bn health service IT programme.

Speaking at the Government UK IT Summit in London today, NHS IT supremo Richard Granger said: "In its simplest form that's about films not being lost and not having to wait for films to be developed."

The PACS scheme will be a significant boost to the NHS. Granger is almost aggrieved that it has taken five years to get the systems into just five trusts. Now the system will be rolled out to 142 trusts by March, 2006 and all 178 by March, 2007.

The advantage of PACS is that it is all-electronic. Scanning and X-ray machines will take digital images, which can then be emailed to whoever needs them; consultants in another hospital, or GPs in their surgery, will be able to view them over a secure network.

Reading between the lines, it would appear that a lot of NHS time is spent running around with film and sending it from one place to another, not to mention trying to track the film down wherever it might be.

PACS will be rolled out to 150 locations and the NHS claims that it will particularly benefit people in rural locations as it will be put into Minor Injury Units and other locations and save many trips to hospital.

A National Programme for IT (NPfIT) spokesman explained: "For most trusts, this sort of system was price-prohibitive – they are very expensive. This will mean that the trusts can afford them. And, the five trusts that have them are silos – they can move them around inside, but can't send them to anyone else."

And he and Granger claim that the deal significantly cuts the costs of PACS systems – Granger claiming 50 per cent. At the moment, nobody seems to be able to put a figure to the new price – or to the old ones.

Being fairly advanced, it is likely that the existing systems are largely bespoke, with all the extra costs that this entails. The NPfIT spokesman said that savings just on the costs of film would be significant.

GE Medical Systems, with two separate partners, scooped the 'rights to supply' three of the five LSPs (Local Service Providers). BT and Phillips got another and CSC with Kodak and ComMedia got two.

Siemens and Agfa, the current UK market leader in supplying PACS, remained in the cold.

In the vague way of NPfIT announcements, this is not a notification of a contract. The system providers now have to seal their deal with the LSPs. They are not foisted on the LSPs, but arrive after a consultation process.