IT Business
BT’s NHS contract soars by £500 million
NHS does not immediately explain cost rise
By Leo King | Computerworld UK | Published 10:59, 02 June 09
The NHS is to hand over an extra £546 million to BT for work on the National Programme for IT.
News of this dramatic increase in contract value was slipped out in a parliamentary written answer yesterday (1 June).
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Health minister Ben Bradshaw said the extra cash was for work BT is undertaking in the south of England.
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However BT is only responsible for four new patient record systems implementations in the south, for ongoing running of systems already installed at eight more trusts and for much smaller systems at 25 mental health and community trusts..
The trusts were previously run by Fujitsu before it exited the £12.7 billion programme.
BT, hit by patient record rollout delays that reportedly heavily contributed to a £1.6 billion write down last month, now has a total NHS contract value of £1.57 billion for patient record systems. Before it ran any southern trusts, its contract was £1.02 billion for London.
The BT contract for work on the 'spine', the hub for all the patient records, is a further £889 million.
