"Until 2004 the NHS didn't even want talk to us," he said. "Look at all the lost opportunities, that's the biggest pain of it all."

Ingrams said, however, that things were improving and that the NHS is "now trying to catch up". But he argued the NHS is wrong to claim that summary care records will save lives in emergency situations.

"Will doctors wait in an emergency to boot up systems and trawl through a summary care record, before they do anything? No they won't. Is it going to save lives in an emergency? No it isn't. Connecting for Health spins things."

In April, the NHS issued an ultimatum to remaining suppliers BT and CSC, insisting a workable patient administration be ready by November. But Ingrams cautioned against this approach.

"You could end up with a system still not fit for use in the NHS," he said. "Just having anything working is not a solution."