LONDON (Bloomberg) ? Bermuda-based Accenture Ltd. and Computer Sciences Corp. won two contracts totalling almost ?2 billion ($3.5 billion) to provide information technology services to the UK Department of Health in the next ten years.

Computer Sciences will get ?973 million and Bermuda-based Accenture will receive ?934 million to provide local systems to access the National Health Service?s records, the health department said in an e-mail. The contract runs through 2013.

The NHS Care Records Service will at first contain basic patient information and health details when it starts running late next year.

The NHS, which provides health care to most residents of England and Wales, is trying to modernise its system to replace paper-based patient records to avoid errors and cut treatment delays.

?The NHS Care Record will completely revolutionise the way that information is managed by the NHS, making sure that all doctors, nurses and allied health professionals can access vital patient information 24 hours a day, seven days a week,? Health Secretary John Reid said in the statement.

El Segundo, California-based Computer Sciences has been awarded the contract for the North West and West Midlands regions and Bermuda-based Accenture will provide services in the Eastern region. The government plans to award a contract for the Southern region in January.

Earlier this month, BT Group Plc won an order worth ?996 million to build and manage computer systems in the London region.

Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting, won a ?1.1 billion contract to manage computer systems in northeastern England.