Accenture has confirmed that it is to walk away from the troubled NHS IT programme.

The IT consultancy was believed to have held negotiations last night to hand over its work to rival Computer Sciences Corporation, after a series of high-profile problems with the contract.

Accenture's work has been beset with problems, including going behind schedule and over budget. Sub-contractor iSoft has also suffered accounting problems that have been linked to problems with NHS project delivery.

Although Accenture is believed to be liable for heavy penalties if it fails to deliver on the project, it is also due payment for some work from the NHS, which could see the consultancy receive a net payment of £100m.

In a statement, it said: 'Accenture will transfer responsibility for delivery of its obligations within the National Programme for IT to CSC in these clusters by 08 January 2007.

'Accenture will retain responsibility for delivering Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS). CSC will continue to fulfill its contractual obligations to provide services to the North West and West Midlands cluster.

'The changes are presaged by NHS Connecting for Health and its suppliers’ ongoing desire to ensure that delivery of new systems is as rapid as is practicable within existing costs.'