No financial contingency in the National Programme? - Richard Granger, head of NPfIT

This is one of a series on this blog of some of more memorable comments made by witnesses and MPs at an inquiry into the National Programme for IT [NPfIT] by the Health Committee of the House of Commons.

The witnesses at the first hearing on 26 April 2007 were:

– Richard Granger, Director General of IT for the NHS and head of the NPfIT

– Harry Cayton, National Director for Patients and the Public, Department of Health

– Dr Gillian Braunold, a GP and National Clinical Lead for GPs, Connecting for Health.

– Martyn Thomas, visiting Professor of Software Engineering, University of Oxford,

– Dr Paul Cundy, Chair, General Practitioners’ Joint IT Committee

– Andrew Hawker, NHS Patient

A list of who is on the committee is at the end of this article.

At the Health Committee hearing Richard Granger said: “…I would say with the time overruns that one of the problems with this programme is there was no financial contingency.

“So, as a programme director, quality, functionality and time are the three things that we have to deal with and the only expression of dealing with problems on this programme is necessarily time, because we are operating within a financial cap and the functionality demands have tended to increase rather than decrease.”

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Membership of the House of Commons’ Health Committee

Kevin Barron, Labour, Rother Valley – Chairman

Mr David Amess, Conservative, Southend West

Charlotte Atkins, Labour, Staffordshire Moorlands

Mr Ronnie Campbell, Labour, Blyth Valley

Jim Dowd, Labour, Lewisham West

Sandra Gidley, Liberal Democrat, Romsey

Stewart Jackson, Conservative, Peterborough

Dr Doug Naysmith, Labour/Co-operative, Bristol North West

Mike Penning, Conservative, Hemel Hempstead

Dr Howard Stoate, Labour, Dartford

Dr Richard Taylor, Independent, Wyre Forest