CSC health boss Guy Hains to leave

CSC’s top health executive, the man who headed up its involvement in the National Programme for IT in the NHS, is to leave the company.

Guy Hains, president of CSC International, holds specific responsibility for the NHS programme in the UK. He will leave CSC at the end of the year and is being replaced by Andrea Fiumicelli, a former senior iSoft executive.

Hains was responsible for securing the original NPfIT contracts back in 2003 and has remained in charge ever since.

In February, CSC had to take a £1 billion write-down against its local service provider deal for the North, Midlands and East.

This had been the subject of protracted negotiations with the Deprtment of Health because of CSC’s problems in delivering Lorenzo, originally developed by iSoft, to the region.

A CSC spokesperson said: “With the NHS agreement defining a way forward for Lorenzo in the UK, and with CSC’s global healthcare business moving toward new development and growth, Guy Hains has decided that it is time for him to move on.”

Fiumicelli, who joined CSC when it acquired iSoft in 2011, has been appointed as vice president and general manager of the healthcare group.

Hains will remain with CSC until the end of the year and work with Fiumicelli on the transition, the spokesman added.

Hains signed CSC’s LSP contract NPfIT to deliver Lorenzo to the NME; but the project suffered many delays.

Last spring, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust pulled out of becoming the fourth early adopter of the system, meaning CSC did not meet contractual commitments set out by both the DH and NHS Connecting for Health.

The two sides were locked in negotiations over a new deal until September when they signed an ‘interim agreement.’ The DH said this would "save" the NHS more than £1 billion from the £3.1 billion contract.

CSC had already written off £1 billion of forecast revenue in February, one of the largest ever write-offs in a UK IT project.

The deal removed CSC’s exclusive rights to be the only provider of clinical IT systems in the NME.

Trusts that wish to take Lorenzo with central funding for the system may be able to do so if they “develop a robust business case and demonstrate value for money.”

So far, one trust has indicated that it wants to take Lorenzo under the new arrangements.