New deal to share responsibility for CRS delays

The National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has confirmed that it has signed "shared governance arrangements" with BT and Fujitsu, LSPs for London and the south of England, that will spread responsibility for the late running core NHS Care Records Service (CRS) between the three parties.

A spokesperson for NHS Connecting for Health, the new agency administering NPfIT, told E-Health Insider: "Both BT and Fujitsu, as the LSPs for London and the Southern Clusters, have invested additional resource to deliver the ‘Common Solution’ for the NHS CRS in those clusters.

"To support these arrangements, the National Programme and the LSPs have established shared governance arrangements. Each of the three parties are sharing key roles."

The ‘Common Solution’ refers to the joint electronic patient record based on IDX’s Carecast, due to be implemented by BT and Fujitsu across London and the south. Documents seen by E-Health Insider indicated that the basic system (P1R2), which will allow basic clinical functionality, will not be implemented until June 2006 at the earliest – nine months behind schedule.

One NHS IT director commented when the delays were first announced: "My concern is that it means hospitals will have to continue to rely on ageing systems… We all have to justify business cases to our boards and delays make it easier for organisations to say it’s too difficult, let’s not do it."

Reports said that the agreement was signed on the 18 February, to "re-balance contributions, responsibilities and risks between BT and Fujitsu." According to Computing magazine, Fujitsu will be given a "lead management role".

The spokesperson for NHS Connecting for Health added: "There is no change to the contractual or management responsibilities and the Authority is fully engaged with all parties to ensure delivery of the IDX solution for both the London and the Southern Clusters."

BT have made assurances that there has been no change in contractual liabilities, and Fujitsu say that the arrangement represents a way of working more closely together to deliver the implementation of NHS CRS.

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NHS CRS delayed by nine months in South