In a statement to EHI Connecting for Health said of the iPM problem: "We have become aware of a data process issue with the iSoft's iPM PAS system." Under certain circumstances, staff exiting a record in iPM without using the 'close' function can lead to data being saved on the database in an 'interim' status – making any amends to the record unavailable to subsequent users. Although the data concerned is not clinical EHI understands that consequences of misplaced and partial patient administration records have included patients showing up for booked clinic appointments only to find the hospital has no record of their appointment, and patients not appearing on waiting lists for hospital treatment. The problem exists in implementations of iPM across all three of the NHS clusters – North West and West Midlands, Eastern and North East – for which iSoft is sub-contracted to provide software under the £6.2 billion National Programme for IT.