Techies from Google, Red Hat, Oracle and other unnamed firms have parachuted in to fix the disastrous rollout of the United States' healthcare.gov website. Google and Oracle confirmed on Thursday that staff have been deployed to help fix the healthcare marketplace's ongoing mega-bork, although Google stressed this is not a …

A direct tender has enabled Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS foundation trust to purchase a patient records system at a cost more than £7m below the price paid by the Department of Health (DH). "We set a capped limit for cost and we introduced this rate at the start of the project," Jane Berenzynskyj, Caerus project manager …

Oxford University hospitals NHS trust is dealing with patient contact and data quality issues following a major project to implement Cerner Millennium. A roll-out of the Cerner Millennium electronic patient record (EPR) system caused delays in treating patients at Oxford University hospitals NHS, its board has found. There …

The government has reached an agreement for a reduction in its contract with CSC, the largest supplier to the now-defunct National Programme for IT (NPfIT). The total saving for the Department of Health (DH) from NPfIT will now be approximately £1.8bn. Health secretary Andrew Lansley told an E-Health Insider event in London …

CSC has confirmed it is to write off almost $1.5bn as a result of its involvement in the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). In December 2011 the company, which had been contracted to supply electronic patient records systems to a number of NHS trusts, warned shareholders it may lose an amount equal to, or in excess of, its $1. …

Christine Connelly, chief information officer for health, has resigned ahead of a shakeup of the department. In a statement she said: “The Department of Health faces a major reorganisation of its top structures that will result in fewer Director General posts. I have been reflecting on whether I would wish to go for one of …

The National Programme for IT - the multi-billion pound contract to update NHS technology use - continues to show an absence of basic management, and even though the scope of the project is shrinking costs are not. Today's report from the National Audit Office is damning even for the NAO and questions whether there is any …

Analysis The major casualty of an overhaul of NHS IT has been revealed. The National Programme for IT (NPfIT) is no more - up to a point. The death of an unwieldy acronym is hard to mourn, but otherwise the coalition's changes to the scheme are marginal. Indeed, if anyone is to suffer as a result of the decision to trim £700m from the …

The ailing National Programme for IT has been cancelled, although most of its multi-billion pound spending will go ahead. A statement from the Department of Health said a shift to more local procurement would work better, "whilst continuing with national applications already procured". The programme should aim to "connect all …

The UK government is to review the controversial Summary Care Record scheme which aimed to put a basic health record for every citizen onto a central spine. The project assumed consent and patients who did not want their records added were required to write to their GP. Health minister Simon Burns wrote to the Local Medical …

The chair of the GP's council Dr Laurence Buckman has called for a proper review of the cost-effectiveness of parts of NHS Direct - we're guessing call centres - and changes to the Summary Care Record scheme. Earlier this week it emerged that NHS Direct is moving to hire call centre managers with no medical experience. …

The Summary Care Records project will continue in care trusts where patients have been properly informed about the process. Michael Fallon, Conservative MP for Sevenoaks, asked health minister Simon Burns if the controversial project to upload summary records to the central spine would continue. The LibDems made some vague …

Dell is urging the coalition government not to cut the world's most expensive civilian IT project - the NHS's National Programme for IT. Parts of the £12.7bn scheme are in the firing line for cuts, not just because of the absurd cost but also because of its unpopularity with doctors and patients. Harry Greenspun, Dell's " …

Figures from Connecting for Health reveal that dozens of primary care trusts took money to tell patients about summary care records, even though they had no intention of actually moving to such records. Some 70 PCTs took money to run publicity campaigns for Summary Care Records (SCR) - you might even have got such a letter …

The National Programme for IT, the £12.7bn scheme to wire up the country's health system, has missed another major deadline - getting iSoft's Lorenzo patient management software running in Morecambe Bay. The contract is being run by CSC and the NHS stressed it would not be paying the consultants or signing fresh contracts …

The shadow chancellor today announced cuts in large IT programmes would form part of a £6bn public spending squeeze under a Tory government, that would be used to cancel most of a rise in national insurance planned for next year by Labour. Under the plan to slash "without reducing the quality of front line services", George …

iSoft's former finance boss Ian Storey has been barred from practising as an accountant, and therefore as a finance director, for eight years after admitting charges of false accounting. Storey admitted that he gave false and misleading information to iSoft’s former auditors in relation to a supposed iSoft contract several …

The NHS's National Programme for IT - supposedly the world's largest civilian technology project - is looking increasingly unwell. But now, with weeks until the general election, the NHS and its suppliers are desperate to score some victories. Pressure is mounting on Morecambe Bay - which is meant to be the first place to …