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Connecting for Health drops Fujitsu
29 May 2008

One of the three local service providers to England's attempt to computerise the health service has left, in a further blow to the programme

Fujitsu, which had a £896m 10 year contract to provide services to all NHS trusts across the south and west of England, has been fired by Connecting for Health, the agency responsible for the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

In a statement on 29 May 2008, Connecting for Health said: "Regrettably and despite best efforts by all parties, it has not been possible to reach an agreement on the core Fujitsu contract that is acceptable to all parties. The NHS will therefore end the contract early by issuing a termination notice."

The loss of Fujitsu is likely to damage the delivery of NPfIT's patient record project, which is already running four years late. Fujitsu is the second major company to leave the programme, following Accenture's withdrawal in 2006.

Connecting for Health said that it has already started planning to replace the company.

BT is likely to be favourite to replace Fujitsu, because it is working with the same Cerner Millennium software for its patient care record scheme. The other major NPfIT supplier, Computer Sciences Corporation which has responsibility for the north, east and Midlands areas, operates a different software system. A spokesperson for BT said: "If we were asked to take on additional work, we would consider it."

Source: Kable's Government Computing