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By Kate Hanaghan, 10 June 2002 16:35

NEWS NHS IT expenditure this year looks likely to be considerably higher than the official figure of £1.1bn. Research from government IT experts Kable, based on interviews with NHS IT managers, reveals that the figures will be nearer £1.4bn. This is higher than the £1.1bn figure from the Wanless Report, which was published in April. Paul Smith, author of the Kable report, said the data produced by Derek Wanless and his research team does not include the cost of IT staff. However, Smith has come down on the side of the Wanless Report in supporting the increased centralisation of IT projects. This is despite calls from critics to steer clear of such moves to avoid the high-profile and highly costly IT failures the NHS has suffered. Smith told silicon.com: "IT projects need to be national and dealt with from a central point." He argued that procurement at local level prohibits the NHS from taking advantage of its vast size to cut costs. Smith added: "The government ends up spending over the odds because of how long it takes to implement a project. It then gets an outdated system which is expensive to maintain." Derek Wanless's report agreed that the organisation has made serious mistakes in the past: his report described the NHS' use of IT as "extremely poor". It also called for the government's IT budget for the NHS to be doubled next year. The trend of an ever-increasing IT budget is set to continue, according to Smith. "I can almost categorically say it won't come down because the NHS wants to spend money on technology to free-up the time of health care workers."