The UK National Program for IT (NPfIT), the national electronics health record program may be in deep trouble. A report last week in ComputerWeekly said that "a board of an NHS trust has learned of a "significant" risk of ­Fujitsu ending its £900m contract to supply and implement hospital systems across southern England."

If Fujitsu pulls out, the NPfIT roll-out would highly probably be delayed, and the whole program called into question. At the very least, a high level review that has been repeatedly called for would be hard to dodge any longer.

In 2006, Accenture pulled out of its £2bn contract with the project, writing off £230m in the process.

A year ago, a senior manager at Fujitsu gave a presentation at a conference on whether NPfIT could be made to work, and was severely beat up for it. Maybe Fujitsu should have bailed out then while the bailing was good.