Home
Local News
Parliament
Articles
Speeches
Richard
Media
South Norfolk
Expenses
Contact
RSS
  NHS 'fined' millions by computer companies free web page hit counter
 

In the South of England, the NHS has been forced to buy itself out of a commitment to lend NHS staff to computer contractors

South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon has established through answers to parliamentary questions that NHS Trusts are being fined millions of pounds because of their inability to lend enough NHS staff to computer contractors running the NHS’s ‘Connecting for Health’ I.T. programme.

In the South of England, the NHS has been forced to buy itself out of a commitment to provide NHS staff to the computer company Fujitsu, at a cost of £19 million.


In the North West and West Midlands region, the NHS faces paying penalties of £6.9 million per year to the computer company CSC, potentially each year over the 10-year life of the contract.

Mr Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, said:

“At a time when hard-pressed NHS Trusts are having to make painful choices in order to reduce deficits, they are being forced to pay money they don’t have and release staff they can’t spare, for something they don’t want and which doesn’t work”. 

“It is surprising that negotiators believed NHS Trusts would be able to spare large numbers of staff for this scheme.  It is even more surprising that the NHS must pay financial penalties if it can’t find all the expected staff to lend to computer suppliers.  The NHS is being hit with fines running into tens of millions of pounds, which it simply cannot afford”.
 

Parliamentary Question and answer follows:

Health Suppliers

Mr. Bacon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the contracted obligations of the public sector are under the Connecting for Health Supplier Attachment Scheme; what the maximum cost to public funds is of not meeting these obligations; and if she will make a statement; [51694]

(2) what representations (a) her Department and (b) Connecting for Health have received from (i) local service providers and (ii) NHS bodies about the Supplier Attachment Scheme. [51698]

Mr. Byrne: The supplier attachment scheme is an arrangement by which national health service personnel are seconded on a temporary basis to work with local service providers to the national programme for information technology (LSPs) to ensure that the systems and services being developed and deployed meet the needs of the NHS. Fulfilment of the arrangement has advantages for the NHS in compensating price reductions and ensuring that NHS expertise is readily available to LSPs.

The current contractual liability to LSPs in each cluster area in respect of the Supplier Attachment Scheme is as follows:

London Cluster—none

North West/West Midlands Cluster—50 whole-time equivalent staff (£6.9 million) per year

North East and Eastern Clusters (jointly)—242,000 man days over the term of the contract (no contracted financial obligation).

Southern Cluster—an agreement has been reached to buy out the liability at a cost of £19 million in 2006–07 as NHS trusts have decided not to supply the staff resources.

The LSPs have said that they greatly value the arrangement and the benefits they derive from it.

 

6 June 2006

See also:
PARLIAMENT: MP says records system may put patients at risk
Printable
Version		 Go to Top Back to
Parliament
© Richard Bacon 2010