NewsBreakingOnline

Department of Health has so far spent £6.4bn on the programme, including £2.7bn on patient records The Department of Health will not deliver the £11bn programme intended to create electronic records for all 55 million NHS patients in England and has been “unable to demonstrate” any benefits for the taxpayer, according to a scathing report from MPs. The Commons public accounts committee said parts of the national programme for IT have proved to be unworkable. The Department of Health has so far spent £6.4bn on the programme, which was launched in 2002, including £2.7bn on patient records. MPs said the intention of creating electronic records was a “worthwhile aim” but one “that has proved beyond the capacity of the department to deliver”. The IT project has floundered almost since the day it was conceived. The national scheme was broken up into five administrative areas, with each region handing out a contract – often worth billions – to big private players, which, it was envisaged, would commission software houses to write computer code. However, the scale of the project has caused companies to walk away, leaving just two groups holding contracts: BT, which is working to put NHS London online; and CSC, which is supposed to have created the computer system for everywhere but the south of the country. CSC has bought iSoft, the company responsible for a large base of installed systems in the NHS that failed to produce a working electronic patient record system, raising the prospect of the health service being tied to one software house. The committee said: “Implementation of alternative up-to-date IT systems has fallen significantly behind schedule and costs have escalated. The [health]department could have avoided some of the pitfalls and waste if they had consulted at the start of the process with health professionals.” The report said officials were “unable to show what has been achieved for the £2.7bn spent to date on care records systems”, adding that taxpayers were “clearly overpaying BT”. The company was receiving £9m for every NHS site, yet the same systems had been sold for just £2m to other hospitals. Richard Bacon, a Conservative MP on the committee who has followed the project since its launch, said there had been “deliberate concealment by the Department of Health”. He said that when Christine Connelly, the department’s director-general for informatics, and Sir David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS, came before the committee, they failed to mention that they had just paid contractors £200m for the project. “The department had told us no private company gets paid until the project gets delivered,” said Bacon. “Then it emerged they paid them £2.5bn in advance payments. A week later we realised that they had given contractors another £200m. Some might say it’s deception.” Connelly left the department a few weeks after her appearance. “I think Sir David carries some responsibility. I think he should stick around so that there is a clear line of accountability for the mess,” Bacon said. The health department of Health has argued that breaking the contract would cost too much money, Bacon said, but this has been contradicted by statements given by CSC to the US stock exchange regulator, where the company admitted it “may receive materially less than the net asset value” of the NHS work if it were to lose the project. “It’s time for the department to tell the truth and stop propping up failing suppliers,” said Bacon. A spokesman for the department said: “We have already taken action to improve value for money in the NHS IT programme.The findings of the public accounts committee, alongside the outcome of the major project review authority, will contribute to the planning currently under way for future informatics support to the modernised NHS.” NHS Health Conservatives Tax and spending Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk