sentences:  It adopted the responsibility of delivering the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), an initiative by the Department of Health to move the National Health Service (NHS) in England towards a single, centrally-mandated electronic care record for patients and to connect 30,000 general practitioners to 300 hospitals, providing secure and audited access to these records by authorised health professionals.On 31 March 2013, NHS Connecting for Health ceased to exist, and some projects and responsibilities were taken over by Health and Social Care Information Centre.Contracts for the NPfIT spine and five clusters were awarded in December 2003 and January 2004.