NHS list plumps for IT big brands

The national list for NHS IT suppliers was announced last week, and is expected to hit independent IT firms hardest.

The list provides hospital IT buyers with a list of companies that have already gone through the compulsory tendering process. Previous lists were drawn up by the six regional health boards, each consisting of hundreds of firms.

Compaq, Canon, Digital, Fujitsu, IBM, Hewlett Packard and Toshiba are among the vendors on the national list whose products will be going through SCC and Tplc. Apricot, Dell, Elonex, Opus and Siemens will deal direct with NHS buyers.

Stuart Green, NHS sales manager at Centerprise, said the company was excluded from the list because of its lack of brand image. He said Centerprise still had agreements with three of the regional boards, which are not up for renewal until August 1999. He also claimed the company had seen a growth in NHS business since the deal was struck in January of this year.