Fujitsu could face £500m bill over NHS deal

Fujitsu could be forced to pay the NHS £500m for pulling out of its £12.7bn IT overhaul.

The company ditched its £896m contract with the NHS after a disagreement over how much it should be paid to revamp the UK's health IT systems under the National Programme for IT.

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Now health minister Ben Bradshaw has told parliament the company is liable to pay up to £100m per contract year, capped at a maximum of £500m, to the Department of Health because its contract finished early.

The Department of Health has a liability of £50m per contract year to Fujitsu, Bradshaw said.

Both parties are negotiating over how much they should pay following the end of the contract in May 2008. The liabilities are payable for the period from the contract reset in September 2005.

Bradshaw also told parliament in a written answer that the cost of BT delivering the Spine, a central database for care records, had gone up to £1bn - an increase of 61 per cent - after a contract renegotiation in February 2008.

A spokesman for Connecting for Health (CfH), the body responsible for delivering NHS IT systems, said it had nothing to add to the figures.

A Fujitsu spokesman said in a statement: "Fujitsu Services is working closely with the NHS to ensure a smooth transition to future arrangements for trusts in the South of England.

"Fujitsu Services has sent a Procedure Initiation Notice to NHS CfH as the first step in the process established by the contract to resolve issues.

"We hope we will be able to successfully resolve any issues between Fujitsu and NHS CfH through this mechanism."