The government needs to get user buy-in if its ambitious
plan to overhaul NHS IT is to succeed, according to executives at
systems integration giant Lockheed Martin, one of the prospective
suppliers for the national programme.
Joan Adams, director of healthcare solutions at Lockheed Martin,
said, "We work using integrated product teams in the development
process, and the customer is a part of these teams."
Jeremy Nettle, the company's UK business development manager for
civil solutions, said end-users on the integrated product teams
could range from nurses and clinicians to senior Department of
Health officials.
He said, "These teams will enable the strategic health authorities
to deliver key elements of the national programme, which is about
improving patient care."
The company has registered its interest in forming consortia
working in all three categories for suppliers of the national
programme. These include local service providers, national
infrastructure service providers and national application service
providers.
Adams refused to be daunted by the scale of the national programme,
which promises to be the largest IT project ever seen in the
UK.
She said, "The scale does not intimidate us because we are used to
dealing with projects of this size."
Lockheed Martin, which is currently delivering an IT infrastructure
project for the US Air Force, recently won a contract to provide an
electronic health record for the Canadian armed forces.
Nettle said, "We have a systems integration methodology that works
across healthcare, government and the commercial sectors that
starts with the customer's expectations."