£6.1bn spent so far on National Programme for IT

The National Programme for IT is behind schedule

The government will have spent £6.1bn on the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) by April, some £2bn less than it had forecast.

The figure is for central spending by Connecting for Health only – it doesn't include any of the £3.6bn that was expected to be spent by NHS trusts on the NPfIT by now. However it does include recent contracts awarded to BT in the Southern region.

The figures were released by NPfIT minister Mike O'Brien in response to a parliamentary question by shadow health minister Stephen O'Brien.

The £2bn spending shortfall is accounted for by a four-year delay to the care records service – a key part of the programme. Because suppliers were placed on tight "payment on delivery" contracts less money has been spent than forecast.

In 2008/09, for example, NHS Connecting for Health spent almost half a billion less than it had planned to as the care records service came to a halt amid concern around a handful of disastrous go-lives.

There are two types of software being used in the care records system – iSoft's Lorenzon and Cerner's Millennium.

In a second response Mike O'Brien said that seven trusts were using the Lorenzo system so far, and 13 trusts were using the Millennium software, five of which are in London and eight in the Southern region.