Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS trusts are not subject to inappropriate (a) pricing and (b) contractual practices by major IT suppliers.

National Health Service trusts procure from suppliers on the Clinical Digital Health Solutions Framework, which is available at the following link:

https://www.commercialsolutions-sec.nhs.uk/frameworks/clinical-digital-health-solutions-cdhs#nav-suppliers

The pricing and policies related to the Oracle Cerner system are based on the NHS frameworks for purchasing electronic patient record (EPR) systems. We are constantly reviewing the effectiveness of the system in the interests of our patients and staff.

The costs of specific trust EPR implementations are dealt with in the EPR business cases that trust boards themselves agree to, and which are submitted for approval. A key Business Case test will be whether trusts can afford both the capital and revenue costs of EPR implementation and upgrades.