The Department of Health is to make two key IT
appointments after the departure of Richard Granger, former head of
theNational Programme for IT[NPfIT], an
internal letter has revealed.
The letter confirms the government is conducting a review of NHS
informatics, including the NPfIT, under Matthew Swindells, policy
adviser to the secretary of state for health.
The letter is by Gordon Hextall, interim director of the NPfIT
and systems delivery at
NHS Connecting for Health, which runs parts of the national
programme.
Dated 6 February 2008, the letter praises Granger for the "major
success in rolling out technology-enabled change to the NHS under
his leadership". It says he has now left having led the NPfIT since
2002.
Hextall reveals the Department of Health plans to recruit a
chief information officer with the status of director-general who
will report directly to David Nicholson, chief executive of the
NHS.
There are also plans to recruit a director of IT programme and
system delivery who will take over Granger's role. This appointment
will be at a lower level - the winning applicant will report to the
new CIO.
Mathew Swindells who is working on the NHS "Informatics Review"
with David Nicholson and Hugh Taylor, permanent secretary at the
Department of Health, is interim CIO.
Hextall says that CfH's remit will be widened from running the
national programme only, to being accountable for "all
nationally-coordinated major IT programmes across the NHS".
Computer Weekly has campaigned for an independent, published
review of NHS IT - but it is unclear whether the Informatics Review
is an independent assessment. The results are due to be published
in the spring.
NHS NPfIT top-level changes - what they are and what they
mean.