Hospital patients hit by £7.2m computer fiasco

It emerged today that the Royal Free hospital has lost £7.2million because of new software and patients have been forced to wait unneccessarily for more than four months for appointments.

The system is the first step towards creating a database of electronic records for all NHS patients. It has caused so much confusion at the Royal Free its roll-out to every other London hospital has been frozen.

An internal trust report seen by the Standard reveals a loss of £3.8million caused by staff entering information on the system incorrectly. It means the hospital has not been paid for some of the operations and appointments it has carried out. A further £1.2 million was spent on bringing in extra staff to sort out the problems.

Patients were not given admission slots even though staff were free. So many appointments were not allocated the hospital failed to meet its target for patients to wait no longer than 18 weeks after being referred by a GP. It cost the hospital £1.3million in "lost activity".

The extra costs mean the trust's savings have been virtually wiped out. It now has a £900,000 surplus, which is £7.7million below budget. A spokeswoman said: "The trust lost £7.239million due to the implementation of the Care Records Service (Cerner) system. The trust has not decided whether to seek compensation for this sum. We are in discussions with NHS London."

She added: "The 18-week target in relation to patients needing admission to hospital in September and October was not met due to Cerner. The reasons have been identified and we expect to meet the target by the end of the year." A spokesman for NHS London said: "We have taken the sensible decision to delay further roll out of the electronic record system until the problems experienced by the Royal Free are resolved. The problems are regrettable and we are determined to resolve these as quickly as possible. In the long term the IT system will save significant amounts of money."

Stephen O'Brien, shadow minister for health, said: "It is a disgrace that ministerial incompetence is leading to hospitals losing money."

The Royal Free is the only trust to have installed the latest "London Configuration 1" software. It links to the NHS "spine" that stores patient information. The national project, expected to cost £12billion, is four years late.

The Government has pledged that by next week no patient should wait longer than 18 weeks for hospital treatment.