Ministers and the Department of Health are risking much of the
£2.3bn NHS IT investment by underestimating the need to win user
support for the programme, according to clinicians, health service
IT professionals and politicians.
The problem was highlighted by Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman
Matthew Taylor earlier this month, when he asked the government
what it was doing to monitor clinicians' satisfaction and use of
new NHS IT systems.
Health minister John Hutton said, in reply to Taylor's question,
"Clinician satisfaction and use of specific implementations of new
NHS IT systems is a matter for local management and the relevant
suppliers."
Taylor has accused the minister of complacency. "There is a real
danger of hundreds of millions of pounds being wasted if doctors
and nurses do not find new NHS technology easy and useful," he
said. "Decisions taken without full buy-in from the users and local
managers are likely to lead to systems that offer bad value for
money and hinder NHS modernisation."
Narasimha-Moorthy Shastry of the United Bristol Healthcare NHS
Trust, a world-renowned expert in telemedicine and medical imaging,
backed Taylor's view and accused ministers and civil servants of
passing the buck.
"When it suits the Department of Health it says local service
initiatives are important. When it suits them otherwise they
emphasise national projects. They confuse the local guys so much
that things grind to a halt," he said.
The Department of Health has embarked on initiatives to improve
user buy-in, including the creation of a 100-strong group of
clinicians to review developments with the Integrated Care Records
Service project.
However, research by Medix UK, commissioned earlier this year by
Computer Weekly, found that only 7% of more than 1,000 doctors and
consultants questioned said they had adequate information about the
NHS IT modernisation plans, and 32% had not even heard about it
before taking part in the study.
Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which
represents NHS managers, said, "The national programme will require
buy-in from NHS management and clinicians at every level. However,
it is still not always seen as part of business functionality or
related to patient care."
Morgan said the confederation was working closely with the
Department of Health to ensure the national programme delivers
improved patient care. "Securing buy-in of clinicians and local NHS
management is an important task that requires commitment and
support from all levels of healthcare leaders," she said.