Services supplier CSC has paid penalties of about £5m
following delays in the deployment of patient administration
software across several NHS trusts under theNational Programme for IT(NPfIT).
The disclosure undermines claims by NHS Connecting for Health
and the Department of Health in a
briefing paper to the prime minister in February 2007 that
"much of the programme is complete, with software delivered to time
and budget".
NPfIT regional minutes seen by Computer Weekly show that CSC has
made penalty payments following delays in rolling out software in
the North, Midlands and East of England, where it is the NHS local
service provider.
CSC declined to comment, but briefing papers to an NPfIT board
in the North West say the penalties relate to "the financial
consequences arising from deployment delays". Suppliers to the
NPfIT face penalties if software is late or they miss contractual
milestones.
CSC is due to supply NHS trusts with iSoft's Lorenzo patient
administration and electronic record system under the NPfIT.
CSC has worked with trusts to deploy limited interim versions of
iSoft's patient administration systems following delays in the
"strategic" Lorenzo releases, which could provide joined-up health
systems across England.
Helen Bellairs, chief executive of Western Cheshire Primary Care
Trust, told the NPfIT board of the North West Strategic Health
Authority that although there have been some successes, there were
several "major issues" with the National Programme.
They include "continuing delays in the availability of the
Lorenzo system, which undermines the credibility of the whole of
the NPfIT".
She said, "In the meantime, existing suppliers continue to
develop their products, which makes it even harder to persuade
trusts to move on to Lorenzo."
A CSC spokeswoman said, "Information relating to penalties
either paid by or requested by CSC are confidential and not
something we can comment on."
She added that the Lorenzo development was continuing "on
plan".
"We are in the final stages of agreeing the roll-out of this new
platform, with the first release being available in 2008
"The current CSC Patient Administration System is an
administrative system and has limited clinical functionality. The
first release of Lorenzo [in 2008] will provide clinical
functionality. We have demonstrated Lorenzo both within central
Connecting for Health and to many hundreds of clinicians," said the
spokeswoman.
An NHS Connecting for Health spokeswoman said, "We are not aware
of any penalties paid by local service providers due to delays in
deploying new systems to trusts. A framework does exist to manage
changes in deployment and both suppliers and the NHS continue to
work together to manage any changes in planned deployments."