Tony Collins's IT Projects Blog

Birmingham City Council - Europe's largest local authority with a £3bn annual turnover - has had an "approvals day" to try and clear a backlog of about 10,000 unpaid invoices from its suppliers. The invoices were "struck" in a SAP-based financial system, more than six months after going live.

The council said this week [May 2008] it had cleared a backlog of invoices which built up when it implemented its "Voyager" system in October 2007 - but its spokesman added that this led to a build-up of unpaid invoices "further along in the payments system".

The council set aside 13 May 2008 as an "Approvals Day" to clear backlogs and "identify and permanently eradicate any remaining payment issues that still exist".

A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said today (15 May 2008): "A total of 2,000 invoices were cleared as a result of Approvals Day on May 13.

Continue reading "Council's unpaid invoices 6 months after SAP go-live" »

The Identity and Passport Service [IPS] has cancelled an overly complicated replacement online passport applications system after rising costs and glitches which led to about 5,000 applications becoming stuck in the system.

The IPS told Computer Weekly that it has written of £10.9m in development costs because of the cancellation of the Electronic Passport Application system, known as EPA2.

Continue reading "Identity and Passport Service cancels £11m web passport system" »

The IT head of an NHS health authority has suggested that CSC's contracts under the National Programme for IT [NPfIT] - may be extended, which would extend the programme itself.

If it happens, it could signal an intention of Whitehall officials to keep extending contracts to local service providers in the hope the NPfIT can be seen to succeed at some point.

Continue reading "CSC's £3bn NPfIT contracts to be extended?" »

Alan Spours, Chief Information and Knowledge Officer at NHS Northwest, has told his board that a review of the National Programme for IT [NPfIT] by Matthew Swindells is expected to give the NHS more flexibility to implement interim solutions where products from local service providers are not available or not fit for purpose.

He has also told his board that a contract reset with CSC, one of three main suppliers to the National Programme for IT, was due to be signed by 6 May 2008.

Continue reading "Swindells NPfIT review - more flexibility for NHS IT buyers" »

Whitehall officials would like to control the language and information on the NHS’s National Programme for IT [NPfIT], but the laws of Nature are, at times, pitched against them: The Sun has begun to take an interest in the scheme.

Following on from its article on the implementation of the Care Records Service at Barts and the London NHS Trust, The Sun has reported on a potential security breach with the “Choose and Book” system – part of the NPfIT - at a GP practice at Essex; and it has an editorial under the headline “Data Dunces”.

Continue reading "The Sun reports on potential security flaw in NPfIT Choose and Book" »

The idea of a summary care record is a good one – it could save lives. But doctors say it should be rolled out only if it’s legal and will work – and there are doubts about both.

When read carefully, the report [2MB] published last week on the summary care record [SCR] early adopter sites by researchers at University College, London, raises questions about whether the scheme will work.

It found that primary care trusts whose boards decided to become early adopters of the SCR – which is part of the National Programme for IT [NPfIT] - have had extra staff and financial help: CfH gave between £100,000 and £200,000 to each early adopter site for "set up" costs. The early adopter programme was also buoyed by strong initial enthusiasm among NHS staff.

Yet still there have been significant problems.

So where does that leave the majority of England’s primary care trusts that won’t have the extra money and people, and perhaps won’t have the enthusiasm of the early adopters of the SCR?

Continue reading "Is NPfIT summary care record plan feasible? UCL report" »

The NHS's National Programme for IT [NPfIT] has taken a different direction with NHS trusts being given a choice of a range of systems from various suppliers - which they were able to do before the advent of the NPfIT in 2002.

Continue reading "NPfIT - back to choice of suppliers for NHS trusts? " »

Comment and analysis

A study published this week into the summary care record – a pivotal part of the £12.4bn NHS’s National Programme for IT [NPfIT] – raises questions about the underlying assumptions behind the scheme, and highlights flaws in the organisation which runs it.

And Computer Weekly has learned that significant changes were made between a draft report by researchers at University College, London, and the approved final report. The final report softens or omits some of criticisms of the government and NHS Connecting for Health [CfH], which runs much of the NPfIT. Even so the final report is enlightening, comprehensive and authoritative.

Continue reading "Is CfH in a good position to oversee the NPfIT?" »

Connecting for Health, which runs much of the NHS’s £12.4bn National Programme for IT [NPfIT], is expected to be criticised in a government-funded report into "early-adopters" of online health records.

A year-long study, the results of which are due to be published next week, is also expected to highlight criticisms of the government by some executives at NHS Connecting for Health [CfH].

The government wanted CfH to implement online health records quickly because of the high political profile of the scheme. This was despite the difficulties gaining support from clinicians, achieving the necessary changes within NHS organisations, and the technology being unproven.

Continue reading "Whitehall pushed immature technology on NHS – government-funded report" »

Whitehall officials have allowed only two weeks for people to apply for two top IT jobs in government – each offering salaries of at least £200,000.

The jobs were advertised on 13 April and the deadlines have passed. Some of those who were interested in the adverts say that two weeks is not enough time to prepare for applications that require comments to be made on a list of difficult questions.

Continue reading "Top Whitehall 200k IT jobs – hopefuls given only 2 weeks to apply" »