The NHS’s £12.7bn programme to provide every patient in England with an electronic care record suffered a severe blow on Wednesday as the project fired one of its key suppliers after failing to resolve a wrangle over the contract.

Ten months of renegotiations with Fujitsu, which holds the £896m 10-year contract for installing the record across the whole of the south and west of England, have broken down, according to both the company and the NHS.