At the British Medical Association's annual representative meeting in Liverpool Dr Paul Flynn of the BMA's Central Consultants and Specialists Committee said he had been brought in to help doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London following the implementation of Cerner Millennium.
Continue reading "Doctors "almost in tears" over NPfIT system" »
Articles in Computer Weekly in June looked at the loss of the Air France Airbus A330-200 in comparison with two much earlier accidents.
French authorities have said there were indications that the pitot tubes on the Airbus might have been blocked, causing the onboard systems to give the pilots conflicting information about their air speed.
After two Boeing 757s went into the sea in 1996, with the loss of 259 lives, investigators discovered that the onboard systems had given the pilots conflicting information about their air speed because of blocked pitot-static systems.
Continue reading "Airbus crash: can a triple-redundant system give false readings?" »
This is an editorial we have published in the print edition of Computer Weekly
[Picture DIUSGOVUK]
Computer Weekly is not prone to panegyric, but here we make an exception.
Ian Watmore is like a cool breeze entering a hot, stuffy room. He reached the top of his profession in the private sector, as UK managing director of international services company Accenture; he made it to the top slot for any IT expert in Government as chief CIO.
And he went further, becoming head of the No. 10 Delivery Unit and adviser to two prime ministers. It's a pity that on 1 June he left the civil service. He has taken his reforming zeal to the Football Association, as its chief executive.
The traits that mark Watmore out include his plain speaking and his lack of fear when taking sensible risks. More than that, he's open about past mistakes, analyses them, and tries to apply what he has learnt from them
Continue reading "Learning from mistakes - the success of ex-Govt CIO Watmore" »
This is an email from NHS CIO Christine Connelly on the departure of her right-hand man Martin Bellamy:
Dear colleagues,
Position on Programme and Systems Delivery
The Director of Programme and Systems Delivery, Martin Bellamy, is moving from the Informatics Directorate to take up a position with the Cabinet Office leading a component of the pan-government ICT strategy. Martin leaves with our best wishes and our thanks for his contribution over the past nine months.
Group Programme Director Tim Donohoe becomes the new Head of Programmes and Operations. Carol Clarke takes overall responsibility for the enabling functions within the Informatics Directorate. Both Tim and Carol are reporting directly to myself.
Continue reading "NHS CIO Christine Connelly's email in full " »
Editorial for the print edition of Computer Weekly
At last some good news on the £12.7bn National Programme for IT [NPfIT], thanks largely to the NHS CIO Christine Connelly.
Article on Computer Weekly's homepage
"Computer Weekly understands that Bellamy's job description was not clearly defined. One executive who works in the NHS said that Bellamy had vague responsibilities for everything and clear responsibilities for virtually nothing."
The Public Accounts Committee should look at its next health-related hearing at how the Department of Health could have appointed two 200k+ IT leaders - Christine Connelly and Martin Bellamy without making Bellamy's responsibilities - and the limits of those responsibilities - unequivocally clear.
The Department's recuitment of Bellamy was a costly - and time-consuming - exercise.
Continue reading "NHS CIO email announces departure of NPfIT head " »
The Information Commissioner has ordered that the Office of Government Commerce publish the results 23 Gateway Reviews. The ruling covers Gateway Reviews on the ID Cards scheme, the NPfIT and on risky IT-based projects at the Department for Work and Pensions.
It follows a request I made in 2006 under the Freedom of Information Act.
Continue reading "Download of ruling on Gateway details on ID Cards and other projects " »
There seems a bit of a panic in Whitehall over media coverage of the release of Gateway Reviews on the NHS IT scheme.
Continue reading "CfH: we didn't really publish NHS IT Gateway Reviews " »
Key points in the 31 Gateway Reviews released on the NPfIT last week are:
i) the professionalism and independence of the Gateway reviewers who have been able to take the "big view" while those working on the programme have been confined to small components only.
Continue reading "16 key points in Gateway Reviews on NHS IT scheme " »
Subscribe to this blog