The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7321 p551
16 October 2004

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NPfIT costs balloon

Procurement costs for the NHS National Programme for Information Technology are likely to be dwarfed by the overall implementation cost.

Known procurement costs to date amount to £6.2bn, but an NPfIT spokesman has revealed that it was always expected that the total cost could be as much as £31bn.

“It is generally accepted in the IT industry that implementation costs are some three to five times the cost of procurements,” Computer Weekly quotes the spokesman as saying. “That is reflected in the business case that was made for the national programme.”

Two months ago, it was announced that NPfIT and its implementation is to be the subject of an inquiry by the National Audit Office (PJ, 4 September, p303).