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By Andy McCue, 30 April 2004 15:25

NEWS The Department of Health is to review the arrangements for engaging frontline NHS staff and patients to ensure smooth rollout and take-up of the new £6bn IT systems.

The announcement handily comes just a day after leaked comments by the former chairman of the project's National Clinical Advisory Board, Professor Peter Hutton, warning that the newly signed IT contracts need reviewing so that rollout to the frontline can be harmonised.

Health Minister John Hutton said in a statement: "Now that the systems have been procured, the most important thing is that we engage and build trust with a wide range of stakeholders."

The deputy chief medical officer, Professor Aidan Halligan, was recently appointed to work with the clinical community to promote the national programme for IT in the NHS.

Halligan said in a statement that he will be embarking on his own tour of frontline Trusts in the next month.

"The programme is now moving rapidly into its implementation phase. We know that our work will only succeed with the support of the medical community and patients alike. I am committed to broader and deeper dialogue - meeting and talking with real people - inside and outside the health service."

A new Front Line Support Academy has also been launched that will use simulators to mock-up realistic environments such as hospital wards and GP's surgeries where clinicians can learn how to use the new IT systems.

Tola Sargeant, analyst at Ovum Holway, said the issues raised by Professor Peter Hutton should not be ignored.

"Buy-in from frontline NHS staff will be crucial to the success of the programme so itÂ’s vital that clinicians donÂ’t feel theyÂ’re being kept in the dark," she said. "Although clinicians have been involved in testing the software, overall awareness of the programme across the NHS as a whole is still low, something Professor Halligan has been frank about since his appointment and is now addressing."