Email"Even though there will be savings made, I think the outcome will be more efficiencies, and I think everyone will do well out of it," said iSoft's chief executive Gary Cohen. The company is in discussions with the government over the changes, which aim to cut £600m from the programme's total cost.
In an interview with SmartHealthcare.com, Cohen said he could not provide any details of the discussions, but said the changes were "blown up out of all proportion," following comments by the chancellor Alistair Darling implying the programme might be terminated or severely cut. "It's good to see that the government has clarified the statement that was made by the chancellor over the weekend," he said.
Cohen said that reshaping the programme would benefit users and suppliers, as it will allow trusts to choose systems more quickly compared with previously. "Maybe some of the ways they were proceeding have slowed that down," he said of the government's initial centralised procurement for the National Programme.
He was optimistic about how the company will perform as trusts in the south of England are given more choice in choosing their IT systems, a process he said is worth "hundreds of millions of pounds to iSoft and its partners".
Under the earlier plans, iSoft systems in more than 50% of hospital trusts in the south would have been replaced Cerner's Millennium software, the choice of the former local service provider for the region Fujitsu Services. "What's happened is that many of the hospital trusts want to retain our systems, and want further products from iSoft," Cohen said.
In the North, Midlands and East, where iSoft is due to provide its Lorenzo software to all trusts, Cohen said the company is meeting the targets set for it by the Department of Health's Christine Connelly in April. "We delivered Bury in accordance with expectations. We're on track to deliver Morecambe Bay on the timescale. Things are progressing nicely," he said.
The firm is due to have Lorenzo working at Morecambe Bay Hospitals by the end of March 2010.
Cohen said he was not aware of any plan to offer choice on software to trusts in the northern region, but the firm is already coping with this in the South and in London. "But in reality there must be more flexibility, which helps us with our solutions in the field. We don't see the changes as adverse."
Cohen also said iSoft has been in dialogue with shadow ministers and other parliamentarians at Westminster, but added that it made no sense to end the programme at this stage. "You can talk about closing the programme in a theoretical sense. It's like swimming across the English Channel, getting two-thirds of the way across and changing your mind. It doesn't help you – the alternative is far worse."
Other countries are working on similar computerisation projects, and leaving it longer would make it more expensive, Cohen added: "The thing now is to stay the course."
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