An NHS hospital trust in south west England is seeking
compensation for the late delivery of NHS Connecting for Health
patient administration systems.
United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust is due to receive the
electronic care records service system from Connecting for Health,
the government agency running the £6.2bn national programme for IT
in the NHS, to replace ageing EDS-supplied systems.
Delivery of the Connecting for Health system to hospitals in the
region had already been delayed by more than a year before local
service provider Fujitsu replaced software supplier IDX with
Cerner.
A spokeswoman for the trust said it was asking for money from
Connecting for Health or its local service provider to pay for the
additional support cost from EDS caused by delays.
"The current contract with EDS expires in December 2006. United
Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust is currently working with the
strategic health authority in an effort to seek funding from
Connecting for Health to fund part or all of any additional EDS
costs incurred during 2007. The go live date [for the new system]
is September/October 2007," she said.
A go-live date of August 2007 was predicted in a business case
presented to the trust's board in December. However, board papers
revealed concerns over further delay. They said the go-live date
"may well slip" and rated the probability of this occurrence as
"five" - the highest on its scale.
The papers added that there was "no proof" of the ability of
Fujitsu to deliver, therefore the probability of delay was
"high".
The trust anticipates a severe increase in support costs should
the new system be delayed beyond December 2007. "The actual cost is
unknown, but could be in the order of three to four times the
current costs, which are £242,000 per annum," the trust papers
said.
This could mean the trust pays £968,000 a year for the support
of existing applications. The trust said EDS was prepared to extend
the current contract.
Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority,
which has responsibility for the Bristol trust, was confident the
trust would not pick up the bill for the delays. "We cannot comment
on commercial discussions but we are confident that United Bristol
Healthcare NHS Trust will not be adversely affected financially by
an August/September 2007 go-live date," a spokeswoman said.
Connecting for Health said it was the trust's decision to put
back the roll-out from August to October 2007, but refused to
comment on whether Connecting for Health or its contractors would
meet the additional support costs caused by the existing delay in
delivery.