PM to face questions on CSC

The Prime Minister will be quizzed on CSC’s performance in rolling out Lorenzo in the North, Midlands and East of England this week.

David Cameron will be asked about his involvement in discussions about CSC’s troubled local service provider deal, which is currently being renegotiated following a series of missed targets for deploying the iSoft electronic patient record.

The Department of Health has already confirmed the Cabinet Office has become involved in looking again at the deal; one of those signed under the National Programme for IT in the NHS that the Conservatives said in opposition they would cancel if possible.

South Norfolk Conservative MP Richard Bacon has taken the unusual step of tabling a closed question for Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

It asks: “what discussions he has had with the Minister for the Cabinet Office and the Secretary of State for Health on the performance of Computer Sciences Corporation in installing Lorenzo software within the National Programme for IT in the NHS”.

A spokesperson from the Prime Minister’s press office told eHealth Insider it was unable to provide a response ahead of the question being asked in Parliament.

“But once it’s been answered, there it will be in the public domain so you will have access to it then.”

Bacon’s very specific question comes after it was recently revealed in a letter from NHS chief information officer Christine Connelly that the Cabinet Office was involved in reviewing the CSC contract.

Bacon has sent Connelly a series of letters about the deal and other revised NPfIT contracts, which he believes may not represent value for money. He has also secured a National Audit Office investigation into NPfIT, focusing on systems in the South of England.

CSC has been in formal breach of the original NME LSP contract since February and has repeatedly missed deadlines for implementing Lorenzo at four pilot sites: Morecambe Bay, NHS Bury, Birmingham Women’s and Pennine Care.

Pennine Care pulled out of the pilot last month after two years of trying. In April, EHI reported that Connelly has said she aims to find a replacement for the trust.

Last week CSC announced it expected a new deal with the NHS “in the next few weeks” that will deliver a stripped down version of Lorenzo to a smaller number of trusts.