Health secretary Alan Milburn has rejected opposition claims that
the Government is failing to invest in NHS IT.
In parliament this week, Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh questioned
whether funds for IT would be raided from other NHS work. "Given
that the Wanless report stated that getting IT strategy right was
essential to fulfil NHS targets, and given that the Government has
had three reports about it and three attempts at doing that, what
guarantees can it give that the available resources will be used to
meet the Government targets and will not be re-routed, which
happened previously?" he asked.
Milburn replied that there are some important lessons to be
learned. "First, we need proper standardisation of IT procurement.
Second, we need competent leadership, which we now have and can
take further forward. We are currently advertising for a national
IT director.
"Third and crucially, we must ensure that IT investment reaches
those whom it needs to reach. It is fair to say that that has not
always happened in the past.
"I assure honourable members that the programme will be centrally
run in future so that we can ensure that we avoid some of the
piecemeal solutions of the past."
But shadow health secretary Liam Fox said the government was
already behind on earlier NHS IT targets.
Milburn replied that the NHS would have a centrally run IT
programme.