US contractor CSC repays NHS £174m for NPfIT failures

The US company responsible for delivering a fully integrated patient and medical records system throughout the NHS has paid back £174m because of the project's failure.

CSC entered into a 10-year contract with the NHS in 2002 to deliver the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), with the intention of providing an individual electronic care record for every UK resident that could be rapidly transmitted between different parts of the NHS system.

However, the NPfIT soon ran behind schedule and above budget. The system was meant to be delivered by 2004 at a cost of £2.3bn, but this rose to somewhere between £12bn and £30bn.

CSC explained that it received a £200m payment from the NHS on 1 April for expected work on the NPfIT during 2012. However, under the advance payment agreement, the NHS was allowed to request repayment if CSC had not progressed satisfactorily.

The repayment from CSC was confirmed to V3 by Connecting for Health, the body responsible for delivering the NPfIT.

A spokesman for the NPfIT said that the NHS will continue to work with CSC to deliver NHS services, though, despite the project's failings.

Meanwhile, CSC's shareholders have launched a class action lawsuit against the firm for allegedly concealing the fact that it could not deliver the NHS contract.

A review by the Major Projects Authority last month said that the NPfIT had delivered some benefits, such as the Summary Care Record and Electronic Prescriptions Service, but should be shelved as soon as possible.

The Department of Health agreed to terminate the programme, but did not confirm when this would happen.

The Conservative party had criticised Labour's ideas for public databases and central IT agendas, and set forth its own NHS agenda shortly after winning the election, outlining plans for patients to control their own data and choose the online providers with which they store their health records.