EmailThe four year contract with McKesson will enable the 26 NHS trusts in England to continue using existing implementations of its software.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health told SmartHealthcare.com: "An agreement which aims to provide trusts with the flexibility they want for managing their information priorities has been reached with McKesson.
"The agreement, which was signed on 31 March 2010, provides support for 26 NHS hospital trusts to continue to use their existing McKesson patient administration systems for the next four years."
McKesson already provides products and services to some 90% of NHS organisations and runs the integrated HR and payroll system for the NHS in England and Wales.
It was not one of the firms chosen to supply the National Programme for IT, which originally planned to replace all existing patient administration systems with new software.
However, the McKesson deal follows one between NHS London and BT signed two weeks ago, which means that some acute trusts in the capital will keep their existing systems, rather than getting new Cerner Millennium software.
Connecting for Health declined to name the 26 trusts, or where they are located.
Victor Almeida, senior analyst at Kable, said: "It is impossible to address the impact that this will have on NPfIT without knowing where these trusts are.
"If these 26 organisations are based in the north, there is a clear indication that CSC is beginning to open up and offer trusts more flexibility, which they have not done up until now. It could also represent a large fissure or even the termination of its NPfIT contract, as has been long speculated.
"If these trusts are solely located in London and the south, this does not represent a massive change of direction, as these trusts have already been offered more supplier choice."
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