Sixty-six per cent of doctors believe there are not
sufficient funds in their NHS area to properly implement the
National Programme for IT (NPfIT), according to the latest Medix
survey.
Although £6.2bn of IT contracts are being paid for centrally by
NHS Connecting for Health, an agency of the Department of Health,
the local NHS is still expected to find funding for training,
business process re-engineering and some technology upgrades.
Of the 1,000 doctors responding to this month's survey by
healthcare online research organisation Medix, 28% said they
disagree and 38% said they strongly disagree that their NHS
organisation would have sufficient funds to enable it to properly
implement the NPfIT.
The findings come at a time when the government has announced
that the NHS is expected to suffer a £94m deficit for 2006/2007,
although strategic health authorities are expected to find a
contingency of £100m to cover this deficit.
The pace of the roll-out of national systems to hospitals is
expected to accelerate this financial year, as service providers
that have signed NHS contracts worth billions of pounds to
implement the system attempt to claw back delays.
However, the local NHS trusts must be ready to invest at the
same time, according to Kate Grimes, chief executive of Queen
Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust, the first trust in London to receive
national programme patient administration systems.
Speaking at a Health Service Journal conference last month,
Grimes said that her trust had underestimated the effort required
to process and train staff to use systems. She warned other trusts
planning to roll out national programme systems not to do the
same.
Whether they will be in a position to follow her advice will
depend on their financial position. Doctors, at least, do not think
this will be easy.
However, 68% of those surveyed agree that current local working
practices should be aligned with the NPfIT before new systems are
introduced.
Other findings from the Medix survey show that Connecting for
Health is failing to sustain doctors' enthusiasm for the project,
which most IT experts believe is essential for effective business
process change.
In February 2004, 56% of doctors said they were enthusiastic
about the NPfIT this dropped to 21% in January 2005, and since then
the number has grown only slightly to 25%.
The survey also invited doctors to comment on the NPfIT. About
30% took the time to do so. Many expressed their backing for some
of the objectives of the programme, but also their frustration with
it.
"It is vital over the longer term to improve IT, and some of the
aims of the NPfIT are laudable," one doctor said.
"However in these days of scarce resources, where many services
are being closed and staff are being made redundant, the overspend
and lack of progress make it a questionable use of resources at
present."
Another doctor said, "Setting up a system of electronic patient
records and communication within the NHS is essential and, if it is
done properly, will undoubtedly save money in the long run and
improve patient care.
"Unfortunately the process appears to have been totally
mishandled with gross incompetence and the wasting of huge amounts
of taxpayers' money. This is a scandal. It is also typical of the
Department of Health's organisational skills."
Clearly the NPfIT has some way to go before it can regain the
early enthusiasm doctors showed for this project.
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