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Compensation claims are set to engulf the state’s £12billion programme to computerise the NHS, speaking fears that the ensuing legal wrangles could slow its progress. Board minutes from the Royal Free Hampstead Trust reveal glitches with the programme’s electronic care records system, built and installed by BT, have caused downtime, which is ongoing. Staff have had to manually collect data on paper, placing strain on its call centre, for which extra staff had to be laid on, as was £300,000 from “reserves” to help with administration. The minutes, seen by CUK, add that “further budget pressure” may be exerted in 2009/10 and although multiple factors were behind downtime to the system, it was found to contain “some bugs”. “With regards to compensation,” trust chief executive Andy Way “reminded members that the contract was with the Secretary of State and that currently, it was considered the NHS as a whole was failing to deliver more substantially than BT.” However the record also shows that one other NHS trust, not named, was known to be seeking compensation and that it would be “interesting to see” the outcome of their claim. That trust was continuing to log all of the problems which it encountered with the system, the meeting heard, so they could be cited in the event that a claim for compensation proves possible. The latest minutes from Barts and the London Trust reveal another potential cause for compensation: its executives said “data quality issues” arising from BT’s installation of Cerner systems were due to cut its income by £3m for the year. Yet BT has not indicated that any trust has approached it for recompense, and yesterday dismissed the recorded IT problems to the Guardian as the result of “bedding down issues.” The defence came on the same day that Fujitsu, a former NHS IT contractor, was reported to be pursuing the Department of Health for £700m for the termination of its £1bn contract in May. Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb said: “The £12.7bn national IT scheme is a hopelessly flawed, centrally imposed project that has not been properly thought through from the start and was never subjected to a proper cost benefit analysis. “Fujitsu’s £700m legal action is yet more evidence of a failing project which has caused enormous frustration and exasperation for doctors and hospital staff.” Sources “close to the negotiations” told the Independent that the Japanese firm was ready to go to court to recoup the bulk of the £896m it would have been paid for the entire care records system. In May, the National Audit Office said the project to give every patient an electronic record was running at least four years late and was not likely to be fully deployed until as late as 2015, not 2010 as ministers hoped. Sep 2, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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