The £12bn NHS IT programme had spent barely half the amount it had planned to by March 2007, due to lengthy delays in the delivery of the detailed local electronic patient records at the centre of the project.
By March 2007 the programme had spent a total of £2.4bn, against an original forecast spend of £4.5bn, a difference of £2.1bn. The majority of this shortfall comes from delays in the delivery of the detailed Care Records Systems to be provided by local service providers (LSPs).
The contracts negotiated by the DH have however proved resilient, ensuring suppliers are not paid unless they deliver contracted systems. The contracts run to 2014.
Originally forecast to be paid £2.8bn by last March the main suppliers – CSC, BT, Fujitsu, iSoft, Cerner – were actually paid £1.3bn.
Significant efficiency savings have been identified from the systems that have been implemented, most notably the NHS network and England-wide roll-out of picture archiving and communications sysystems (PACS)
The £208m recorded savings, from 20% of trusts that are using NHS IT systems, are published in the DH’s first annual statement of NPfIT benefits – something called for last year by the National Audit Office.
Based on the figures the DH says new IT systems in the NHS “are on course to deliver better care and an estimated £1.14 billion in savings by 2014”.
Some £192m, the vast majority of the savings in the period reported, March 2004 to March 2007, are said to have come through delivery of National Network for the NHS. The N3 network is predicted to deliver recurrent savings of £95m year.
A further £14m of savings is said to have come from the introduction of digital imaging and scans, through the installation of picture archiving and communications technology. Recurrent savings of £35m per year are predicted from the now fully implemented system.
A mere £617,000 is reported to have been saved on software licensing and hardware maintenance costs.
Health minister Ben Bradshaw said at a press conference that there have been a lot of moans around IT in the NHS, but he asserted: “Our use of computer technology in the NHS is becoming the envy of the world. It is saving lives, saving time and saving money.”
Chief executive of the NHS, David Nicholson said: “This report shows that we’ve been making really solid progress against delivering an integrated IT system for the NHS, which is not only making us more efficient, but is helping our clinicians and staff deliver better, safer services for patients.”
Jon Hoeksma