The Department of Health has named Capita as its preferred supplier for the NHS website - NHS Choices.

The site was set up in June 2007 by Dr Foster Intelligence but the contract is up for renewal in August. It is expected that Capita will take over in Autumn this year.

The site, nhs.uk, offers general health advice, advice on choosing a hospital and health news.

There were sixteen companies interested enough to fill in a pre-qualification questionnaire. From this group six companies - Capita, Dr Foster Intelligence, IBM, Serco and TATA - made it onto the short list.

The three year contract is worth between £60m and £80m. ®