NHS IT “behind schedule”
Summary
The National Programme for IT in the NHS was set up to
utilise information technology to help provide high quality services to
patients, using centrally managed procurement to provide impetus to the uptake
of IT and to secure economies of scale.
Expenditure on the Programme is
expected to be £12.4bn over ten years to 2013-14.
Following a
National
Audit Office report , this Report
‘Department
of Health: The National Programme for IT in the NHS’ (HC 390) from the
Committee of Public Accounts examines progress made by the Department of Health
in implementing the Programme, particularly:
- The current status of
the shared electronic patient clinical record
- The costs of the
Programme
- The local management and implementation of the systems
within the NHS
- The extent to which clinicians were involved in
developing the systems
- The management of suppliers
- Patient
confidentiality.
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How does it affect
me?
If you work in or are a patient of the NHS, this affects you.
The Committee’s four key conclusions are:
- The piloting and
deployment of the shared electronic patient clinical record is already running
two years behind schedule and no firm implementation date exists
- The
suppliers to the Programme are clearly struggling to deliver (one of the
largest, Accenture, has now withdrawn), and the Department is unlikely to
complete the Programme anywhere near its original schedule
- The
Department has much still to do to win hearts and minds in the NHS, especially
among clinicians, and needs to show that it can deliver on its promises, supply
solutions that are fit for purpose, learn from its mistakes, and respond
constructively to feedback from users in the NHS
- There is still much
uncertainty about the costs of the Programme for the local NHS and the value of
the benefits it should achieve.
Visit the
Department of Health
website.
Find out more about the work of the
Committee
of Public Accounts.
