MPs blast BT and CSC for NPfIT rollout failings

Government urged to scrap umbrella technology programme as top suppliers are hauled over the coals

MPs have urged the government to scrap the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) and blasted suppliers CSC and BT for failing to deliver on guarantees made in bumper contracts.

The NPfIT was launched nine years ago and was intended to revamp the way in which the health service uses technology. One of the central tenets of the £11.4bn plan was to introduce electronic patient records (EPR).

But a report published today by the Commons' Public Accounts Committee has called on the entire programme, including plans for EPRs, to be canned.

"The Department [of Health] should review whether to continue the programme and consider whether the remaining £4.3bn would be better spent elsewhere," said the report's summary.

The summary claims that despite a total of £2.7bn being spent on implementing EPRs so far, "the Department has failed to demonstrate the benefits achieved". The previous government is, in part, blamed for the NPfIT's failings for not having "consulted at the start of the process with health professionals".

The report also brings out the knives for major suppliers BT and CSC, blasting the pair for failing to deliver on their contracts.

"CSC has yet to deliver the bulk of the systems it is contracted to supply and has instead implemented a large number of interim systems as a stopgap," explained the report summary. "The Department has been in negotiations with CSC for over a year, and told us that it may be more expensive to terminate the contract than to complete it."

BT is also in the firing line, standing accused of demanding more than four times the market rate for its services.

"BT has also proved unable to deliver against its original contract," added the report. "The Department agreed a revised contract reducing the number of systems and increasing the price for each system BT had to deliver.

"The Department is clearly overpaying BT to implement systems: BT is paid £9m to implement systems at each NHS site, even though the same systems have been purchased for under £2m by NHS organisations outside [NPfIT]."