BT is keen to take on any parts of the £6.2bn National Health Service IT programme abandoned by Accenture as the consultancy group negotiates a possible withdrawal.
The programme to upgrade the NHS computer system has been dogged by delays and infighting between suppliers – Isoft is in a financially precarious position and Accenture is trying to renegotiate its participation amid fears it will make a huge loss.
The project would see electronic records and digital images taking over from paper and X-ray films, outpatient appointments booked online and prescriptions transmitted electronically.
Patrick O’Connell, head of BT’s health division, said BT had booked “hundreds of millions of pounds” in revenue and was confident of making a profit.
He said that if Accenture – the US consultancy that has taken a $450m (£240m) charge for possible losses on the project – pulled out, BT could step in. “If Connecting for Health [the NHS’s IT procurement arm] asks us, we would look at it in a positive way,” he said.
Computer Sciences Corporation – which together with BT, Accenture and Fujitsu is a lead contractor on the programme – has also expressed an interest in taking over Accenture’s parts of the project, which are in the east of England, should it withdraw.
Accenture is in talks with Connecting for Health and may walk away from a programme.
Still to be finalised is whether Accenture would leave certain geographic or healthcare areas or would give up altogether and what the penalties would be for doing so.
The company reports earnings on September 28 and is likely to want a resolution before then. BT was not immune to problems at the beginning: parts of the project were delivered behind schedule and the company had to pay fines.
The company is lead contractor in the London area but is also responsible for installing the broadband network that is supposed to create a unified system as well as the contract to build the central patient record database known as the “spine”.
Mr O’Connell said BT took “a very, very conservative financial approach” to booking revenues.
Isoft has admitted that its accounting policies have been too aggressive.
For BT, the NHS project is intended to be a shop window for its IT services business, soon expected to account for more than half of revenues as growth at the traditional telecommunications business declines.
“That’s the intent – to transform BT to a new breed of services company,” said Mr O’ Connell.
He said the different problems in the upgrade were partly down to the fact that the upgrade was the world’s biggest civilian IT project.
He still expected it to end up a success as long as there were no changes at the NHS procurement body.
“I guess my only concern is that the noise around the programme may distract the leadership,” he said. “I don’t want the noise in the media to sway someone.”
Yesterday, System C, the small IT services group also involved in the project, warned that the rate of roll-out of patient administration and clinical systems had “again slowed considerably” owing to product and deployment difficulties among some of the big contractors to the programme.
Today, the watchdog charged with bringing errant accountants to book will decide whether to investigate RSM Robson Rhodes, Isoft’s former auditors.
Additional reporting by Philip Stafford and Barney Jopson
