Health chiefs admit 'systemic failure' as cost of NHS IT project rockets by £50m

It was originally due to be up and running by mid-2013 but is already over-budget by tens of millions of pounds and due to be delivered three years late.

The organisation, which offers the public urgent medical advice over the phone, said that a humiliating episode last November, when the new system was abandoned days after a long-awaited launch on the grounds of patient safety, were responsible for the latest surge in costs.

NHS 24 offered a unreserved apology for its failure in implementing the project which it admitted will now not bring the benefits it had initially put forward to justify the upgrade.

Its former chief executive, John Turner, is to be grilled by MSPs tomorrow as part of a probe into problems with the scheme. Mr Turner's successor and the organisation's finance director are also set to appear before them.

In a submission to Holyrood's Public Audit Committee, NHS 24 said that the crisis-hit system, which it claimed following the abandoned launch three months ago would be reintroduced early this year, now will not relaunch until the summer.

It pinpointed a "systemic failure around programme governance" as the root cause of the delays and cost overruns, admitting that neither NHS 24 bosses nor the Scottish Government had put in place measures to mitigate against "substantial risks" presented by the program. While it insisted it had learned from mistakes, it said its approach had been "risky and expensive".

It added: "The original business case was inadequate, the program governance ineffective, commercial management was weak, too much reliance was put on suppliers promises and the organisation had insufficient understanding of call centre system implementation to successfully launch."

The failure of Capgemini, the firm hired to design the software, to come up with a working solution by 2013 had exposed the underlying weaknesses in the project, NHS 24 added.

Dr Richard Simpson, Scottish Labour's public health spokesman and a former NHS consultant, said the new setbacks summed up the SNP Government's "bungled approach" to long term planning in the health service.

He added: "Whilst health boards like Greater Glasgow and Clyde are debating what services to cut in some of the most deprived parts of the country this project is running at tens of millions over budget and years behind schedule.

"Their management of IT projects in the NHS in particular is an absolute farce. When the NHS 24 IT project failed at launch after supposedly rigorous pre-launch testing why is it taking a further nine months to correct the faults? I have no confidence at all in the new SNP oversight system for these IT projects."

In its written submission to MSPs, NHS 24 said additional costs as a result of issues following last year's long-awaited roll-out, which saw staff told to revert to using pens and paper after it quickly emerged that the new system was not functioning properly, are set to cost as much as £7.6m over and above an already upgraded estimate of £117.4m. The project began in 2009 and was approved on the basis it would cost £75.8m.

Despite bosses insisting that the new system for handling calls and patient information had been thoroughly tested last year, staff members reported calls from patients not coming through to them while a nurse found that she was unable to transfer a patient who needed emergency treatment to 999, meaning it was quickly ditched.

Mary Scanlon, the Conservative MSP and deputy convenor of the public audit committee, said: "Most hard working Scots will be appalled to learn that so much of their cash has gone on a telephone system which is not fit for purpose, with the costs and savings probably not ever being realised."

An NHS 24 spokeswoman said: "The Public Audit Committee will look at the financial and governance issues with our delayed technology upgrade. It is now clear that, as with other public sector technology programmes in the past, NHS 24 did not have the required level of expertise and knowledge to deliver such a large scale IT programme.

"However, we are absolutely committed to resolving all outstanding issues and implementing the new system during 2016, so we can continue to support the public with high quality, safe and effective services."

Shona Robison, the health secretary, said implementation of the new system remained a "matter for NHS 24" although the Government had offered additional support to the body.

She added: "NHS24 provided regular assurances that issues were being resolved and that the system was workable and heading for successful implementation in Autumn 2015.
 
"That was clearly not the case. The decision by NHS 24 at the end of last year to pause the implementation of its Future Programme is disappointing, but it is right they have taken an approach that puts patient safety first. 
 
"NHS 24 is undertaking a full review of recent issues and is due to provide the Scottish Government with a clear account of what went wrong and its plan for reintroducing the system later this month. Those findings will be considered very carefully to ensure lessons are learned within NHS 24 and more broadly across NHSScotland.
 
"The Chief Nursing Officer, Professor Fiona McQueen, has been asked to lead on behalf of the Scottish Government in order to obtain substantial assurance on proposals for system implementation in 2016."