Technical problems have pushed parts of the £5bn National Programme for NHS IT three months behind schedule and resulted in more fines for BT.

But NHS IT director general Richard Granger claims some setbacks are to be expected in such a large and complex initiative, and will not delay the overall implementation.

In a wide-ranging and exclusive interview with Computing, Granger admits that issues with the 'data spine' at the heart of the programme have resulted in further fines for BT, but claims a series of important successes, including a smartcard-based authentication infrastructure (see link below) and a functioning electronic bookings application.

'It is important to balance the fact that some of the test environments have not been available when they should have been, with the fact that we have delivered a whole pile of functionality as a foundation upon which a national infrastructure can be based,' said Granger.

BT was fined £300,000 - 30 per cent of its expected fee - in July for not meeting a target of 99.8 per cent availability for the data spine that will act as a gateway to national systems such as ebookings and electronic patient records.

'What is really important is to understand that this is absolutely normal for commissioning large complex systems,' said Granger.

There have also been delays in parts of the ebookings project, the first component of the National Programme to go live, because of problems with the test environments provided by BT.

The aim is for a seamless process whereby a GP can access the ebooking application directly from their existing desktop system without having to log in to separate software or re-type patient data.

While the ebooking application itself went live at the start of July as planned, the integration of existing GP practice software has been delayed because of problems with the stability and availability of test environments.

The integrated ebookings system is expected soon, three months behind schedule.

'We are weeks away from getting the most popular GP systems to a point where GPs won't need to leave the system they use for consultation to go into the ebooking dialogue,' said Granger.

Both spine and the test environment availability are improving, and the integration delays should not cause significant shifts in the overall timetable, says Granger.

'It isn't necessarily the case that because we spend longer in testing, the end date will move because the roll-out activity to GPs can be compressed.'

Ebookings is being trialled by a sample of 20 GPs and 30 consultants and is due to roll out nationwide from October.

BT was first fined in June for delays in rolling out the N3 broadband network.