Fujitsu has emerged the winner of the final contract to run the NHS Care Records Service. It beat shortlist contenders EDS and SchlumbergerSema/Cerner to win Local Service Provider status for the south of England. The gig runs until 2013 and is worth £897 million.

The NHS CRS programme will see an integrated patient record, prescribing and booking system installed in England. It is probably the biggest civilian IT project in Europe. The government split the country into five areas and invited IT firms to bid for each regional franchise. The winners are Accenture, which won the North East and Eastern Regions, BT (London), CSC (North West and West Midlands region)and Fujitsu.

BT also beat C&W and EDS to look after the central care record. On the vendor side, Sun has done very well, supplying the hardware and software for BT's central spine.

And let's not forget British firm iSoft which was in the winning consortium for three of the winning consortia, and US rival IDX, which picked up two wins. ®

See also:
Gov't press release
Gates to meet Brown, OGC and NHS chiefs - Sun, OSS in crosshairs?
CSC, Accenture win NHS Care Records contracts
UK NHS trials Sun Linux, threatens 800k user defection from MS
NHS wants another £2bn for IT mega project
NHS patient privacy? What patient privacy!