The NHS would have been “better off” without the £12.4bn
National Programme for IT (NPfIT), according to a document
apparently written by a former director for the
scheme.
Papers apparently sent from the computer of David Kwo, who
resigned as implementation director for the programme’s London
cluster in April, warned, "The NHS would most likely have been
better off without the national programme, in terms of what is
likely to be delivered and when.
It added, “The national programme has not advanced the NHS IT
implementation trajectory at all; in fact it has put it back from
where it was going.”
Kwo resigned from Connecting for Health, which is overseeing the
NPfIT scheme, in April after being suspended earlier in the month
while unspecified allegations against him were investigated.
The document sent to Conservative MP Richard Bacon, a member of
the Commons public accounts committee, was revealed in the Observer
newspaper on Sunday.
It said problems with the new IT system had led GPs to implement
their own systems, "fragmenting the national programme further",
while hospitals had been forced to deliver "outdated legacy systems
which the programme was established to replace", in order to show
that something was being done.
Bacon called on prime minister Tony Blair to halt the NHS IT
programme, labeling it “his personal brainchild”.
In response a spokesman for NHS Connecting for Health said the
programme was “much needed, delivering computer systems and
services that will ultimately improve the safety and efficiency of
patient care”.
The systems being delivered are for the first time “linking to a
national service, which in time will give doctors, nurses and
health professionals access to patient information when it is
needed most”.
Connecting for Health said it was “not aware of any GPs buying
their own systems. If anything our work is raising the standards of
functionality and performance of GP systems”.
Serious doubts have also been cast on the NPfIT scheme by 23
academics, who warned that it may not be technically feasible.
In June, in a report that had been delayed by lengthy
deliberations with Connecting for Health, the National Audit Office
said the programme had made “substantial progress”, but warned that
it was too early to tell if the project would give value for money
and highlighted “significant challenges ahead”.
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