New NHS email system switched on

One NHS IT manager wrote to E-Health Insider this week providing his anonymous diary of the week of frustrations experienced trying to use the system:

"I logged in again from within NHS and found I could not access the new mail system, it was not just frustratingly slow but grindingly slow. The Outlook interface worked but there was no way I could check my calendar, the page just timed out.

“By Tuesday mail was fine and operating to acceptable speed. But the calendar and alarmingly the contacts had not been populated."

“I went to change my secrets and password but cannot find how to do that, the function does not appear to be available, perhaps not outside the NHS? Still no calendar and no contacts…"

“I emailed for help and have had a holding reply only, I will be given a reference number later. I also tried to attach a file with a long file name and it hung."

“Today, Thursday, I’m at home on my way to a meeting. Still no response from the helpdesk, still no calendar and still no contacts. I am seriously concerned."

“Why was the transfer attempted on a Thursday in the first place? That cannot have given any time for contingency. Why no message on the front page giving the status? Why no helpdesk? I fear for the National Programme for IT if this is the standard aimed for."

Another user, a GP, also wrote told EHI of his frustration with trying to use the new mail system on Monday. “As expected, a disaster. Our email is down, Outlook does not recognise and new settings needed, but try and access the site, impossible, it takes ten minutes to load and then get a server error… are we ever going to get a major IT project that actually works on day one?"

Two individuals’ experiences obviously don’t reflect the many users of the system across the NHS, but they do suggest that Contact still has some issues to be resolved.

When we asked a Cable and Wireless spokesperson whether the system was now running smoothly, we were told “that is the information I have".

NHSmail was originally due to have gone live on Friday, 15 October. But EHI understands that Electronic Data Systems (EDS), providers of the old NHSmail system, got a call from the National Programme asking them to keep the system going – just as they were about to switch it off. 

The contract for Contact was awarded to Cable & Wireless by the National Programme for IT in The contract value of Contact was £29.5m, rising to £50-90m when a planned number of users sign up for the system.

The original £90m contract with EDS to provide email and directory services to one million NHS staff was terminated by NPfIT in March 2004, with NPfIT citing  “complaints about difficulties logging on to the system and other problems".

EHI would like to hear from other readers about their experience of using Contact. Are the problems reported above isolated glitches, or have you experienced similar frustrations – or are your experiences of the system positive? Email editor@e-health-media.com or leave a comment below.