Fujitsu wins CfH support contract

20 Apr 2006

NHS Connecting for Health has awarded Fujitsu the contract to supply its national front line service support desk.

The contract, which will last until 2013, will require Fujitsu to set up four call centres in Wakefield, Stevenage, Manchester and Foots Cray in Kent. They will manage an estimated four million calls per year.

The support desks will cover the English NHS Care Records Service, Choose and Book, electronic prescribing and Picture Archiving and Communications Service (PACS). Fujistu say the support desk will be a single point of contact available for 24hrs a day, 365 days a year, and will take fax and e-mail queries as well as calls.

As well as core support, Fujitsu will also offer local framework agreements for non-NPfIT technical queries so trusts can procure their own local support services.

Peter Hutchinson, public sector managing director at Fujitsu Service, said: "As a result of this new service, NHS staff will receive a much enhanced IT helpdesk function at improved value for money. These contracts will enable NHS staff to obtain the technical support they require for NHS Connecting for Health applications, and, where they choose, trusts' local systems."

Fujitsu say that the new support desk will be based on industry standards and best practice and will scale up existing support services. Calls will be owned and logged through to their conclusion by the service.

Support provided by the National Service Desk will be merged into Fujitsu's system. The transfer is currently scheduled to take place this autumn, and a total of 870,000 NHS staff across England will have access to the support desk when fully implemented.

Procurement for support services started a year ago through the Official Journal of the European Union. Five organisations, BT, Capita, CSC Computer Services, Atos Origin and Fujitsu applied to the procurement notice.

Oh joy, another tier of complexity

20 Apr 06 12:10

Weren't Fujitsu supposed to be busy delivering the Care Record in the South ?

Anachronism

20 Apr 06 12:21

By my estimation - based on CfH's current progress with basic non-clinical functionality such as PAS and CAB - the Fujitsu contract will have expired in 2013 before there is any widespread need for a support desk!

NCRS support call

20 Apr 06 13:00

Dear Support Desk

Lord Warner has stated on several occasions recently (e.g. Channel 4 news and BBC Radio 4 interview) that NPfIT was on schedule e.g.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ztuesday_20060314.shtml

The Output Based Specifications inform me that the services listed below would be available from December 2004. I am obviously having some trivial login problem to these magnificent facilities. Please can you tell me how to access them?

By the way, a national helpdesk 'by December 2004' was mentioned in the same document. I guess I am just confused.

Integrated Care Records Service PART III – COMMON REQUIREMENTS Output Based Specification version 2.0 >> Level to be Achieved by December 2004 (Phase 1)

Sufficient helpdesk facilities for all users (Authority or public) who require support, at both national and local levels.

ICRS NASP to provide NHS Direct-type, public-facing helpdesk for queries on myhealthspace and first line technical support.

Each LSP to provide helpdesk facilities for Clusters for support with all issues in their respective Cluster (first line) with hand-off to second line (and other) support as required and to the ICRS NASP (where appropriate).<<

>> Minimum Level to be achieved by December 2004 (Phase 1)

…. local systems to update the Spine with:

• patient summary information

• Encounter details (low to medium structured Messages)

• care relationships

• administrative events

• referrals (low to medium structured Messages) and requests for services and results (results at a minimum should include pathology test results (using existing PMIP standards) and textual diagnostic imaging results reporting)

• Local systems to interrogate the Patient Demographic Service and Personal Spine Information Services for patient match and available clinical data.

• Local systems to interface to eBooking services (the latter provided by a separate NASP).

• New and existing National Applications to interface to the Personal Spine Information Services and Personal Demographics Service as necessary.

• myhealthspace patient-entered information to the Personal Spine Information Services.

• myhealthspace entered annotations of Personal Spine Information Services content.

• GP Notification of emergency admission.

• GP notification of engagement with mental health services including emergency admissions with or without sectioning under the mental Health Act.

• Reports from out of hours services to GPs.

• GP to GP record transfer implemented nationally.

• Adoption of ICRS security and confidentiality requirements by all new systems.

• Birth and Death notifications to Personal Demographics Service.

• Medications and dietary supplements (flows as in Trigger Events 1a above and as defined by eTP programme)

• Recording of patient consents.

• Local and national system access to terminology services. <<

Gap analysis ...

20 Apr 06 15:29

Do you think Lord Warner might possibly have misunderstood the briefings he has been given on progress with CfH?

Wot??????

20 Apr 06 16:38

It may be that, as usual, I'm assuming something that isn't intended.

But doesn't it say (towards the middle):

'As well as core support, Fujitsu will also offer local framework agreements for non-NPfIT technical queries so trusts can procure their own local support services.'; and...

'These contracts will enable NHS staff to obtain the technical support they require for NHS Connecting for Health applications, and, where they choose, trusts' local systems.'

Does that mean this single point service and support desk will, (subject to contracting with Fujitsu for such) take calls about non-NPfIT (presumably legacy/existing systems), and that (as the Report says again:

'Calls will be owned and logged through to their conclusion by the service.'

Wonderful! My local Acute (62 clinical systems, none of them NPfIT/CfH yet) will be seeking a quotation from Fujitsu tomorrow.

Surely this item has been delayed by 19 days?

1st Line Support

20 Apr 06 20:49

1st line support means LOGGING the call not resolving it. That is the responsibility of 2nd and 3rd line support. This means that Trusts can outsource their helpdesk services, but still need other groups to resolve the issues themselves, unless it's trivial. Given that on average 70% of helpdesk calls are for password resets, if the Fujitsu deal is cheaper it should be worth moving across.

1st line support services were included in the OBS but not included in the final contracts, hence this new procurement

1st line is not just logging - see ITIL

21 Apr 06 14:34

First line support is the logging and resolution of non specialist calls - with a target of at least 30% resolution via first line where you are dealing with a complex range of applications - over 50% for less complex.

If we offer NHS staff a call logging service - frankly they will go nuts. Doctors and Nurses need to speak to first line staff with local NHS understanding who can resolve simple calls immediatly. I am aware of more than one outsourced helpdesk service in the NHS that went belly up due to the disatisfaction from clinical staff with what was a call logging service.

On a more positive note - having one number to resolve N3, PACS, Choose and Book, NCRS etc is a positive step. It will stop local support staff being bounced from one service provider to another - each blaming the other for service problems.

I see the service as providing a second line service - in that the local help desks provide a first line service and once a call has been diagnosed as a national service provider problem, not resolvable at a local level, the call is passed on to a single help desk for all national applications.

now if we could have an underpinninh copmmon help desk infrastructure used by the local NHS service, the Fujitsu national service and the service providers, with a common knowledge base and the ability to pass calls fom one to another - now that would be good news. I wonder how much we are all paying for our individual helpdesk software ?

Finally - will it be the responsibility of local RA services to deal with password resets - not the local or national helpdesk?

Oh and by the way, you pay per call

12 Dec 06 14:03

Another nightmare on the way, CfH are going to recharge Trusts for logging calls via the NSD, so we will be paying for the privilige of telling the centre when their failing systems are down.

And the taxpayer will be paying for the overhead for shifting money around the NHS to administer the stupidity.

(post edited by EHI)