By Steve Ranger, 16 June 2006 15:25
NEWS
Spending on the giant NHS IT modernisation project is likely to reach £12.4bn by 2014, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).
This includes £6.2bn for the main fixed-price IT contracts, £382m for new projects, £239m on additional services and £1.9bn on other expenditure by NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) on centrally managed projects and services.
Another £337m will go on replacing core contracts that expire before the end of the 10-year period to 2014, and £3.4bn in expenditure by local NHS organisations on IT and training.
The NAO said the programme - the UK's biggest ever IT project - has the "potential to generate substantial benefits for patients and the NHS". And it said by buying IT goods and services centrally it has already saved £4.5bn.
It also praised the way NHS CfH struck deals with suppliers, saving £600m by maintaining "competitive tension".
The report said: "The speed of the negotiations and the inclusion of a sound balance of incentives and penalties within the contracts have put NHS Connecting for Health in a strong position in its relationships with suppliers, and one that is stronger than previous government procurement practice."
And it added: "NHS Connecting for Health has adopted many of the key lessons of prior public IT failures."
But there are still problems - the NHS Care Records Service is running late, and take up of Choose and Book is much slower than initially planned.
The NAO said NHS CfH must still faces three main challenges to successful implementation. It must make sure there are no further delays to the rollout of systems; make sure that NHS organisations play a full part in implementing the programme's systems; and win the hearts and minds of NHS staff.
It added the NHS should tell staff how the project will affect them and when so that setbacks and changes of priority do not cause a loss of confidence.
Health minister Lord Warner told silicon.com: "We accept there are some areas where we could make faster progress. We should have worked harder at the beginning at staff engagement."
Director general of NHS IT Richard Granger added: "If this was easy it would have been done years ago. Computerising the NHS is something that has proved elusive for several previous programmes. We have not repeated the mistakes of the past."
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Tony Sygrove
So the NHS justify this enormous expense by say that lessons have be learnt; WOW! I didnt realise that this country had so much money to throw away on lesson learning. Isn't it about time that incompetence was eradicated from these large government projects, but of course this cannot happen as we would have to sack so many MP's and high ranking Civil Servants. Better to leave them where they are to avoid serious media outcrys, after all the country can afford these financial disasters they just increase taxes.
2. Dick Winchester
Does anyone know how much of this £12.4bn is going to genuinely UK companies?
3. David Newman
You have got to be joking!!!
This present trend has got to stop.
Let's get some true professionals on this subject matter.
I have been in business/information technology for some 50 years.
Let's get back to basics!
Sort the business case out first,MAP this
with real-time BPM tools and stick to the plan!!!
4. Dick Vinegar
There are two basic laws in IT. Understand what the end user does. Sell the benefits of your system to him/her. Since Granger took over in Oct 2002, the clinicians, the BCS, the Healthcare IT community, the surveys and the media have been repeating these laws in his ear. Neither he nor his DoH masters have listened.
After a barrage of complaints, the NHS did appoint a series of "clinical leads" to sell the system, starting about two years ago. But three of them resigned in series at six-monthly intervals. To lose one might be bad luck, but to lose three smacks of carelessness. None of them got the NPfIT message across to my GP or any of the hospital doctors I visit for my geriatric illnesses.
So now, we have systems written by IT people for IT people, and lo and behold the doctors and nurses won't use them.
And the Healthcare vendors are going bust because Granger screwed the contracts down so tight.