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The UK National Health Service (NHS) National Programme for IT (NPfIT) system has apparently run into some major trouble, British newspapers reported last week. It appears that the initial roll-out of the system across all London hospitals has been suspended until next year after problems were encountered at the first London hospital - the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust - to receive it.

According to accounts, the electronic health record (EHR) system "could put seriously ill patients at risk of being inaccurately diagnosed." In addition, the system is routinely crashing, as well as intermittently losing patient information.

As a result, staff have had to revert to pen and paper records again.

The £12 billion EHR system is already 4 years late and will likely slip at least another 6 months if not longer. As I have posted about earlier, NPfIT support contractors Accenture and Fujitsu both have walked away from the project. A third major contractor, British Telecom, is currently suffering from financial problems of its own and will likely have to lay off workers, which some speculate may negatively impact the NPfIT roll-out as well.

A new, in-depth review of the NPfIT effort was announced today by new chief information officer for health, Christine Connelly (formerly a CIO at Cadbury Schweppes), who promises results of the review by year end.