GE Healthcare, part of General Electric Corp, took over as subcontractor to BT on the project’s London cluster following its acquisition of IDX Systems Corp in September 2005. In the original NHS deal, IDX had also been selected to provide software to the Southern cluster, operated by Fujitsu Services, but Fujitsu dropped IDX in favor of Cerner in June last year, citing poor performance.
In June, UK government watchdog the National Audit Office published a report into the NHS Connecting for Health program that said, BT had entered into a subcontract with IDX that meant that IDX was not incentivized or focused on the timely delivery of quality solutions. The report added that BT was seeking to revise its subcontract with IDX so that it is aligned with its contract with NHS Connecting for Health.
As well as being prime contractor to the London cluster, BT is also responsible for the installation of a new national broadband network across the UK. In December 2004, BT was forced to pay 4.5m pounds ($8.3m) in compensation to the NHS as a penalty for missing targets related to this project.
