ISoft apologises to NHS and CSC

ISoft has issued a highly unusual statement to the Australian Stock Exchange apologising to the NHS and CSC for comments made in a market update last week.

The update revised the company’s revenues for 2010 down by as much as £17.6m ($30m) and cited political uncertainty in the UK for its not being paid for anticipated milestones as one reason.

This morning, it issued a statement saying the comments had been a matter of “opinion” and not “fact.”

The latest statement says: “ISoft Group Limited issued a market update on 2 June 2010 partly referring to a deferral of decisions in relation to the National Programme for IT for our partner CSC being due to an uncertain political climate in the UK and ensuing election.

“In addition, further comments regarding government change were given as a reason for delays in NPfIT procurements in the South of England. Both these statements were iSoft’s opinion and cannot be taken as fact.

“ISoft remains fully committed to delivering the NPfIT with its partner, CSC, and building on recent success and apologises for any unintended criticism of either the NHS or CSC.”

Since the market update was issued, iSoft’s shares plummeted 30% to 39 Australian Cents. Shares have continued to fall to 32 Australian Cents this morning.

E-Health Insider understands that the implementation of Lorenzo Regional Care 1.9 at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, which is expected to trigger large payments to iSoft and CSC, was successfully completed last Thursday.

Tony Halsall, trust chief executive, said in a statement to EHI: “The full implementation of Lorenzo Release 1.9 was completed at UHMBT on 3 June 2010. It is up and running across all our hospitals.

“With the launch of any new computer system, you expect to encounter teething problems that only appear after go-live. We have a team of people on site, working around the clock, who are correctly equipped to both identify and fix any that may appear.”

Both iSoft and CSC will have to wait until the software has met a number of criteria in order to receive payment. The trust added that the next phase of implementation will include going-live with the software in A&E.

“Our emergency departments, at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital, are currently not using Lorenzo.

"We are working with our clinical colleagues, NHS Connecting for Health and CSC to refine the system and have always planned to implement that part of the module over the summer.”

Link: ISoft’s latest statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.