Contractors working on overhauling the National Health Service’s complex IT system have been paid just £257m on contracts worth almost £5bn, figures for March have revealed.

The paper cited shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley as the source for these figures.

This represents just 5% cent of their contract value, despite these contractors having spent an estimated £1bn so far, according to The Observer.

Four companies have been charged with delivering the new system, designed to allow 50 million patient records to be stored electronically, namely BT, Accenture, Fujitsu and American firm CSC.

Despite this underpayment, only Accenture is predicting losses on the project saying in March that it was setting aside £260m, citing problems with its main software provider, iSoft.

CSC has been paid just £119m on a contract estimated to be worth £973m.

BT, which is responsible for the programme across London, said it been paid just £1.3m on a £996m contract, while experts estimate the company is likely to have spent around £200m on the work.

Fujitsu, has received just £26m for work on its £986m contract for southern England,