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Launched in 2002, the National Programme for IT in the NHS was hoped to be completed by 2010, but a more realistic date is 2014/15 according to the report.

The system is hugely ambitious and will allow care professionals across England to access a patient's medical records. However, in order to make the system work, the programme must first standardise equipment across the NHS - a huge undertaking. So huge in fact, the NAO claims the original timescale was unachievable.

Chairman of the committee of public accounts Edward Leigh MP admitted that rolling out the programme would be "challenging" and that the delivery expectations

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have already damaged its standing: "Over time, the Department of Health (DoH) has had its eyes opened to its enormous scale. And by building unrealistic expectations for delivery, confidence in the whole programme has been damaged."

However, Leigh pointed out that positive changes have been made in the deployment of the programme: "My Committee reported on the programme last year and our recommendations have given the Department and the NHS a push in the right direction."

Huge undertaking

"The scale of the challenge involved in delivering the National Programme for IT has proved to be far greater than envisaged at the start, with serious delays in delivering the new care records systems," says NAO chief Tim Burr.

"Progress is being made, however, and financial savings and other benefits are beginning to emerge. The priority now is to finish developing and deploying care records systems that will help NHS Trusts to achieve the Programme's intended benefits of improved services and better patient care."

So far the estimated cost of the programme is £12.7 billion, but due to the delay in deployments, actual expenditure to date stands at £3.6 billion, lower than expected.