Healthcare software specialist iSoft is slowly climbing out of the red, according to full-year financial results published today.

The firm made losses of £8.8m for the year just ended, compared with a £382.2m loss in 2005/6 due to significant administration problems.

But the board does not expect the group to return to significant revenue growth until the Lorenzo hospital administration software product - a key part of the £12bn National Programme for NHS IT (NpfIT) - is developed to a point where it can be marketed outside the UK. Current targets are early 2008.

'Both normalised operating profit from operations and the year-end cash position were considerably better than we had budgeted for at the beginning of the year,' said acting chief executive John Weston.

iSoft incurred costs of £21.8m relating largely to restructuring and has launched a regeneration plan to strengthen operations and reduce costs.