Performance at Kingston Hospital could suffer when it goes live with the IT records system in September.

Delays in implementing the £12.7bn Care Records Service system have already cost Kingston £500,000 in contractors and staff who have been kept on the pay roll in readiness for its introduction.

Kingston’s takeup of the system has now been delayed twice, once in October and again in April.

Chief executive Kate Grimes said: “I can’t even begin to describe to you the scale of the changes required. It is bound to impact on the performance of the organisation while the staff get used to the new system.”

Glitches at Royal Free Hospital, the first to go live, have cost it £7.2m.

The national IT project run by BT has so far cost £12bn and is four years behind schedule.

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