Papers released by the Department of Health, which were due to be
unveiled this week, outline the health service's future technology
strategy in what will be the UK's largest ever IT project
The long-awaited national IT strategy, Delivering 21st-Century IT
Support for the NHS, is a massive overhaul of IT within the health
service which, with more than a million employees, is the UK's
largest employer.
Although implementation of the strategy is not scheduled to start
until April 2003 officials have detailed some of the long-term
targets that have been laid as foundations for it.
By March 2003 the department expects that the health service will
have connected all NHS clinical and management staff to the NHS
Network to enable e-mail, directory services and Web browsing. This
deadline will also be applied to the electronic transfer of all
biochemistry, haematology and microbiology test results.
Long-term objectives of the strategy include broadband access to
all NHS clinicians and support staff by December 2005, as well as
implementation of domain-to-domain encryption.
A national appointment bookings service is expected to be
implemented by December 2007, as will electronic patient records
systems in all primary care trusts and hospitals. The new strategy
is, however, dependent on additional funding from this year's
spending review.
The Government has a poor record on meeting NHS IT targets. In 1998
it promised to connect all computerised GP surgeries to the NHS
Network by 2000 - a deadline that was later abandoned.