The company behind London's troubled NHS electronic records project is to take charge of the system at more hospital trusts in the south of England.

BT already runs the scheme at four trusts in London after Japanese firm Fujitsu was sacked in May. The £12.4 billion National Programme For IT, which is already four years late, was set up to create a national set of electronic patient records. But it has been plagued with delays and caused millions worth of losses.

Now BT is set to take over at NHS trusts Winchester and Eastleigh, Surrey and Sussex, Weston Area, Taunton and Somerset, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Milton Keynes, and Worthing and Southlands.

Stephen O'Brien, shadow minister for health, said the new contract will be handed to BT without a proper tendering process and could end up costing the taxpayer an extra £500 million.

A spokesman from NHS Connecting for Health said: “We have adhered to the intention, outlined during the original procurement process, to transfer business between suppliers in the event of one leaving.”

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