Fujitsu ditches NHS software supplier

Fujitsu has dropped a key supplier for the NHS patients records project in the south and west of England. Fujitsu is scrapping an agreement with US firm IDX in favour of a product from Cerner. It is the first time a major supplier has been ejected from the NHS IT programme. The change is subject to contract but that should be signed in the next two weeks.

In a statement released yesterday IDX admitted the deal was over and it expected to pay between $2m and $4m in costs for getting out of the deal.

NHS IT director Richard Granger warned in March that failing suppliers would face the bullet. The programme aims to give every patient an electronic health record which can be accessed from anywhere. Doctors have complained of a lack of consultation over the project.

IDX was months late in delivering a localised version of its patient record software, according to the FT. Its CareCast product will now be replaced in the Southern cluster by Cerner's Millenium software. Granger admitted the change would be disruptive and would cause delays. Anonymous sources were more outspoken on VNUnet predicting a delay of one or two years.

IDX still has a contract with BT covering the London cluster. BT told the paper it still has full confidence in the company.®

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