NHS calls in the mediators for EDS

The NHS is to go to mediation in its dispute with EDS after its abrupt termination of the £90m contract for a central email and directory service.

But, in a statement released late last night, the NHS Information Authority still managed to put the boot in, stating that: "EDS' delivery of the contract has been the subject of ongoing concerns including unacceptable delivery delays, issues in the functionality of the services and service capacity. There has been a low take-up of the services and therefore the contract is not delivering the value previously hoped for."

However, as the lawyers have already been pressed into the action, it adds: "The causes of these problems are matters of contention between the NHS and EDS. The parties are moving to mediation, as prescribed in the contract, and it is therefore regrettable that EDS has chosen to discuss these issues publicly and to undermine the confidentiality of the contract and the effectiveness of the mediation process itself."

Part of the EDS' complaint was that the contract had been axed without recourse to the "dispute resolution procedures" laid down in the contract.

So going public has produced a positive result for the company, in that it now stands some chance of recouping its £11m or so development and roll-out costs.

The National Programme for IT's statement goes on to deny that neither it nor any individual had gone on to "unfairly" portray the service as failing or that it had failed to promote the service properly. It does this after saying that it won't be commenting further "upon the advice of lawyers".

EDS had little to lose by taking the dispute public because it has already missed out on the £2bn worth of NHS IT projects launched during the past year or so.

But the company, however, is still upset that "the NPfIT has chosen to terminate EDS' contract, despite it being praised in March 2003 by Sir John Pattison [the Senior Responsible Owner, NHS Information Authority] as one of the two best examples of IT implementation in the NHS."

Now it's down to the mediators and lawyers.