Tony Blair's recent calls for improved use of technology in the NHS
would require both a massive investment and a significant cultural
change in the health service, experts have said.
Speaking in a televised debate on the future of the NHS last week
the prime minister asserted that "massive changes and savings"
could be made with better systems and technology.
Murray Bywater, managing director of healthcare IT specialist
Silicon Bridge Research, believes widescale NHS technological
change will come at a price.
"Re-engineering requires a substantial investment in the specific
IT infrastructure," he said. This investment will be greater than
anything that has been previously envisaged, he added.
Bywater warned that the level of investment the NHS currently
provides in terms of IT support for its employees is very low, even
in comparison with the rest of government. The sheer scale of the
NHS, which is one of the largest organisations in the world, has
always presented a real technological challenge to the Government.
However, Bywater believes that listening to patients' calls for new
technology is crucial to building a successful NHS IT
infrastructure.
"The NHS has to make more use of technology to provide patients and
citizens with the services that they want electronically, such as
NHS Direct," he said.
NHS Direct, the national telephone and Internet healthcare service,
recently won praise in a report from the National Audit Office
(NAO).
John Bourn, head of the NAO, praised the project team's achievement
in meeting the Government's targets for introducing the telephone
service and its associated Web site.
The success of NHS Direct aside, Bywater believes that the NHS
should also make more effective use of services that rely on
electronic support, such as scheduling. "It is a question of
looking again at how the NHS provides its services and using
technology to support them," he said.