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The deal is worth around £65m, about the same as the original five year, £64.5m contract for the service.
The new contract, which Atos will continue to provide with its partner Cerner, includes extra functionality. Connecting for Health (CfH) said this includes the ability for referrers to search for services using clinical terms in Snomed, a medical terminology, rather than a keyword search.
"The result should be that it is much easier for referrers to find services effectively - thus ensuring the patient is referred to the right service, first time, every time," said a spokesperson, adding that CfH is also expecting to add usability enhancements and changes to help providers better manage referrals, reporting and information improvements.
Choose and Book, which was introduced in July 2004, allows patients to book hospital and clinic appointments online, by telephone or at a doctor's surgery. All hospitals are using the system, and 89% of GP practices have used it as of last week, with more than 12m patients referred, according to CfH.
In November 2008, according to the latest data verified by the Department of Health, it was used for 50% of all outpatient referrals in England. On 4 February, health minister Ben Bradshaw told a Westminster Hall debate in Parliament that the usage figure for January 2009 hit 57%.
Although as a functioning national system which went live on time, Choose and Book represents one of CfH's successes, the government had hoped for higher usage figures: at one point it had a target of 90% by March 2007.
In the Westminster Hall debate, Bradshaw said the relatively low average was due to primary care trusts varying widely in their approach. "Some PCTs do not train their staff, including their GPs, in how to make the best use of the system, some do not agree with their local providers how services should be displayed and some do not use the clear provisions in their contracts with providers to enable referrals to flow freely through Choose and Book," he said.
"We are pressing PCTs to work closely with their GPs and providers to resolve these issues," he added, saying that areas vary from 95% in Barnsley down to about 25% in Leeds.
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