Healthcare consultancy Silicon Bridge has published a well-rounded article on the National Programme for IT - NPfIT - and its legacy.
Some of the comments:
“Today, the international market is looking on, somewhat bemused, as some of our wilder NPfIT aspirations begin to evaporate into thin air.”
“From the outset of the NHS National Programme, Connecting for Health senior management were openly dismissive of established UK healthcare-ICT suppliers. The rhetoric was all about ruthless programme management, smart procurement, large-scale deployment — and lessons to be learned from the petrochemical industry. As it turned out, most of the lessons that needed to be learned were on the part of large-scale service suppliers, who rushed headlong into impossible commitments, spurred on by the seductive promise of unprecedented rewards. Some of these suppliers have paid dearly for learning the first basic lesson — that healthcare is not as easy a market as they were originally led to believe.”
The article also looks at what's happening at HC2008 - the annual healthcare computing conference. Last year NHS Connecting for Health withdrew some of its key speakers from the Harrogate conference. Matthew Swindells, the Department of Health's acting chief information officer, is the opening speaker at this year's event.
Links:
HC2008 Healthcare Computing conference, Harrogate, 21-23 April