My understanding is that the BMJ withdrew from the "tendering" process to
provide Clinical Knowledge Summaries. This was I believe due to the BMJ
and the NHS failing to agree who should own the intellectual property
rights of the summaries.
In my opinion if the NHS had agreed to the BMJ retaining the property
rights for something which the NHS were paying them to produce, this would
have been a major mistake. What would have happened in the future if the
NHS and BMJ failed to renew the contract? All of the content would have
been lost. By retaining property rights the content can be moved to a new
system/supplier if necessary.
I agree that losing Clinical Evidence was unfortunate but I believe that if
you take the long term view, the NHS were correct to retain the property
rights.
Prodigy was/is very good. Its only drawback is it concentrates on primary
care.
Hugh Hanchard
Librarian
Friarage Hospital
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