Local authority chiefs have called on the government to
reassess the priority it is giving to the Integrated Care Records
Service, a core part of the NHS national programme for
IT.
The government wants to increase joint working between the health
service and local authority social care and housing organisations,
which will require their IT systems to be joined up.
However, while the NHS is set to receive £2.3bn in the next three
years, just £25m a year has been allocated to local authorities to
address health and social care integration.
David Johnstone, director of social services at Devon County
Council and chairman of the research group at the Association of
Directors of Social Services, said the focus on the NHS' national
ICRS programme was blighting moves towards a national electronic
social care records system for local authorities.
Existing ECRS deployed across the UK already provide much of the
core functionality required in the ICRS, but John Pattison, NHS
director of research, last week said the NHS would take precedence
over the social services electronic records.
Johnstone called for "joint working now" to develop a unified
system, without which there is a risk of NHS systems being imposed
on social care. Without it, Johnstone said, social services'
electronic records development would grind to a halt. "What
suppliers would get involved in ECRS under these circumstances?" he
asked.
Local authorities were getting caught in a series of problems
caused by a combination of government targets for joined-up working
and the state of NHS IT, he told Computer Weekly.
NHS executives at local level do not understand the importance of
IT, said Johnstone. The fragmentation of NHS and the plethora of
NHS systems make it very difficult to deliver the backbone for
joined up services, he added.
"The national IT strategy for health could potentially be really
good because it would begin to join up NHS systems and provide an
interface for local authorities, but there are risks," said
Johnstone.
There is a planning blight in the NHS, which is affecting local
authorities, he claimed. "When we talk about joint information
systems, the NHS cannot respond," said Johnstone. Local NHS
executives are using the national IT strategy as an excuse not to
move, he added.