Millions of pounds have been wasted on two local NHS projects, cancelled to make way for the National Programme.

But the Department of Health (DoH) says there can be no 'special cases' and local plans for electronic patient records (EPR) must give way to the nationwide Integrated Care Records Service (ICRS).

Both multimillion pound EPR initiatives were cancelled last week: The Shires in the South West and the Pan-Bristol and Weston (PBW) programme. The contracts were several years into the complex public sector purchasing process and were due to be signed in the next few months.

Both plans rely on central funding from the DoH, and neither can now go ahead.

The shortlisted suppliers for PBW were SchlumbergerSema, McKesson and EDS, while the Shires deal was to go to either Logica or SchlumbergerSema.

Industry insiders estimate suppliers have spent up to £1m on PBW bids and up to £3m on Shires bids, and that the health service has invested similar amounts.

'The DoH, in discussion with the lead Strategic Health Authority chief executives with responsibility for IT, have concluded that there can be no "special cases" and no additional national funding available to support this local project,' said the DoH in a statement about the Shires programme.

'In reaching this decision the DoH were mindful of the need to support the wider National Programme initiatives currently being developed.'

The news comes one month after the cancellation of the Birmingham-based Blackberd EPR project, six months into its tendering process (Computing 24 April).

ICRS contracts are expected to be signed by the end of the year. According to the specification, seen by Computing, the first phase of ICRS will go live by December 2004 and allow authorised NHS staff to view basic clinical information such as x-ray results for their patients.