CSC to cut 750 UK jobs

CSC has announced its plans to make another 750 redundancies to its UK workforce as part of its “ongoing transformation strategy."

The company offers its electronic patient record system Lorenzo to trusts in the North, Midlands and East of England as part of a deal between the government and CSC.

In an interview with EHI last month, the company’s UK healthcare boss Philippe Houssiau said CSC is also aiming to win contracts outside the government deal.

However, the company has also been working on redesigning its operations across the globe, which has led to 750 employees in the UK estimated to lose their jobs.

“The redesign has resulted in the loss of some jobs in locations throughout CSC’s network, including the UK,” said a CSC spokesperson.

“We estimate that up to 750 employees will be impacted in the UK, all of whom will be supported professionally, compassionately and with assistance, where necessary, in their transition from CSC.”

Although the company, which employs more than 7,000 people in the UK, maintains that these “adjustments” are not directly related to any “specific clients or programmes in the UK”, it may affect workers in the healthcare side of the business.

The news of the planned redundancies comes as CSC has named Dr Sanjiv Gossain as vice president and managing director for its UK, Ireland and Netherlands.

Gossain will be responsible for driving growth for CSC and managing all operations in the region.

The company has so far won nine contracts for its Lorenzo EPR under the revised agreement with government.

Lorenzo is the system that CSC was due to deploy to the NME under the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

The system has been dogged by development and deployment delays, leading to long negotiations with the DH over a new deal for the NME. The company finally reached an agreement with the DH in September last year.

This is not the first round of job losses for the company. In 2012, EHI reported that the company was planning to make up to 500 people working on NHS accounts redundant.

EHI reported in June last year that CSC told staff in an email that it had plans for 750 redundancies. EHI understands that the job losses announced this week is separate to the 750 that went last year. This brings the total number of redundancies in the last two years to 2000. 

CSC will open a new regional hub in King’s Cross, London in May.