NHS spent £1.6bn on ICT, says minister

The figure, released in response to a parliamentary question by Conservative MP Mike Weatherly, does not include spending by special health authorities or central expenditure funded by the Department of Health (DoH). Burns disclosed that £915m of the sum was spent by NHS hospital trusts, £682m by primary care trusts and £27m by strategic health authorities. The figures were compiled through an annual national survey on IT investment. It was also revealed that DoH spending on the National Programme for IT in 2008-09 amounted to over £1bn. When asked by Weatherley for a breakdown of the spend by the DoH on NPfIT projects in 2009-10, Burns said that technology provider CSC had received more than £213m from a total expenditure of £322m. Atos and Fujitsu received more than £37m each through working on NPfIT projects, while the department spent £23m for Cable and Wireless' services. In response to a request for the cost of NHS IT projects undertaken by companies with headquarters outside the UK in 2009, Burns said the relevant information is not held centrally and would cost too much to collect.