NHS suffers as Fujitsu quits IT project

NHS’s ambitious programme of electronic care record for every patient in England suffered a serious set back with the failure of ten months of renegotiations with Fujitsu.  The supplier which was awarded 10-year contract worth £896m for installation of records across south and west of England, did not accede to NHS demand for flexibility in delivery of services. The flexibility would have cost more to Fujitsu. NHS did not agree either to compensate for extra costs or to return to original contract terms.

NHS IT programmer, ‘Connecting for Health’ will issue a notice to Fujitsu informing termination of contract.
Exit from the deal is likely to cost £300m to the Japanese-owned services company. NHS is losing one of its 4 major suppliers after the withdrawal by Accenture in 2006. Fujitsu will be replaced by BT which runs the programme in whole of north and Midland.

The break up is going to affect the programme adversely. With the core product-the electronic record, being behind schedule by four years, the entire programme will suffer from inordinate delays.  Connecting for Health claims that Fujitsu had committed a smooth transition to new arrangements, without specifying the details. BT a clear favourite to take-over uses the same Cerner software that Fujitsu has been installing, and would be in a strong position during the negotiations.

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