NHS IT suppliers given seven months to get it right

NHS IT has experienced major delays

IT suppliers in the £12.7bn NHS National Programme for IT could have their contracts scrapped unless they make progress in big hospitals by the end of November, according to Department of Health chief information officer Christine Connelly.

In an interview with The Financial Times, Connelly said the NHS will look at “alternative approaches” if the deadline is not met.

"At this point, we are not ruling anything out," she told The FT.

“It is in all our interests to make the systems and solutions we currently have a success."

Connelly also said that NHS trusts will be given greater scope to set up electronic patient records systems to meet their local needs, instead of being forced to comply with a standard configuration.

The main focus is on the large acute hospitals where CSC is installing the iSoft care records system and the London trusts where BT has had problems implementing the package from Cerner.

BT has recently won additional contracts with several trusts in the National Programme’s Southern region after previous supplier Fujitsu had its deal terminated in May last year. Work on the remaining 30 trusts in the area will be opened up to competition to allow other vendors to bid against BT and CSC, according to Connelly.

"The key thing we have communicated to our suppliers is the need for significant progress by the end of November," she told The FT.

"If there is a suggestion that everything is just going to slip and slip, that's the point where we will draw the line."

Earlier this month, the government brushed aside calls for acute hospital trusts to be allowed to implement alternative electronic patient record systems if the NHS National Programme for IT does not make sufficient progress with its own software. MPs on the Public Accounts Committee had called for a six-month deadline from January to make progress with the troubled care records systems.

A spokesman for BT said: "We will continue to work with NHS CFH to determine how we can best meet the changing requirements of the NHS. This will include considering how we might offer acute trusts a more flexible and tailored approach."