BT, with its subcontractor LogicaCMG, has won a 10-year, 620m pound ($1.07bn) contract to design, deliver and manage a national patient-record database and transactional messaging service. Otherwise known as the National Application Service Provider Contract, BT beat rivals including IBM and Lockheed Martin for the deal.

When fully implemented the NHS Care Records Service will enable NHS organizations to record and exchange patient and care information electronically, eliminating duplication of patient files and improving information sharing between healthcare professionals.

Additionally, BT has been awarded a 966m pound ($1.6bn) 10-year local service provider contract to provide systems to access and use the service in the London region. BT has said that the deals will enable it to book 50m pounds ($86.6m) of additional revenue this year and 150m pounds ($260m) next year. The company beat rivals IBM and Lockheed Martin for the regional contract.

Accenture beat Cerner, CGEY and PlexusCare for the 10-year LSP contract to provide systems to access and use the services and IT support at a local level in the North East region of the UK, worth 1.1bn pounds ($1.9bn).

The awards represent the bulk of the NHS’s new IT budget, which is now rumored to have recently been doubled to approximately 4bn pounds ($6.9bn) to attract more bidders – given that companies such as EDS had pulled out of bidding on the larger contracts due to low potential profitability of the deals.

The NHS has already announced SchlumbergerSema, the IT services operation of oilfield services giant Schlumberger Ltd, as a winner of a five-year 64m pound ($110m) contract to design, develop and manage the National Health Service’s new national bookings service in partnership with Cerner Corp.

Winners of the remaining local services provider contracts are due to be announced before the end of the year. Other bidders include Fujitsu, Lockheed, PlexusCare, and SchlumbergerSema, bidding for the South East and South West region; Accenture, Cerner, CGEY, and PlexusCare bidding for the East of England and East Midlands; and BT, CSC, Fujitsu, IBM, and Patient First Alliance, which are bidding for the West Midlands and North West regions.

This article is based on material originally produced by ComputerWire.