You are here: silicon.com > Public Sector > News

NHS claims IT success

Just a matter of gaining momentum...

Tags: npfit, nhs

By KableNet

Published: 14 June 2007 09:49 BST

Speaking at a joint session of GC Expo, Smart Healthcare and Procurement Solutions on Tuesday, Connecting for Health chief executive Richard Granger gave delegates an update on what has so far been achieved in terms of core system delivery.

He was backed up by one of the programme's contractors, managing director of BT Health Patrick O'Connell, who said the NHS's National Programme for IT was working and it was a question of gathering pace.

Granger responded to a call from Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat shadow health spokesperson, for the government to undertake an independent review of the programme and suspend work on the national records system. He described this as being as controversial as the programme itself and produced a barrage of statistics to support his claim that it is producing results.

Is there a skills shortage?

Tell us what you think of the IT workforce in silicon.com's 2007 Skills Survey.

He said that stopping a system that was enabling patients, among other things, to make 18,500 "Choose and Book" electronic appointment bookings every day was "probably not the sort of idea that you would be able to exercise without causing massive disruption".

He cited the Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) as a "very significant success" of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in bringing about efficiency gains. Granger said: "We've implemented [PACS in]138 sites now in the NHS," adding that it would be up and running in all of the country by the end of the financial year.

The N3 broadband network has been delivered ahead of schedule, Granger said. He outlined plans for the network's development over the next year, including voice over IP, wireless voice over IP, the introduction of wearable phones for frontline clinicians in the acute sector and measures to converge GSM and wireless local area networks for voice communications.

This story first appeared on KableNet here

  1. Zones
  2. Management
  3. Networks
  4. Software
  5. IT Services
  6. Hardware
  1. Verticals
  2. Public Sector
  3. Financial Services
  4. Retail & Leisure

silicon.com Public Sector
Get the latest public sector news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the PS newsletter today!


  • Jobs
Trainer NHS (Lorenzo or Choose & Book)

Do you have experience delivering training to users on Choose & Book, SystmOne, Lorenzo IPM Community or similar NHS systems? My NHS client is ...

NHS - Public Health Analyst - Contract - Midlands - Apply!

My NHS client is looking for someone who can: 1. My client is looking for potentially 2 Public Health Information Analysts! This exciting new 'Public ...

NHS iPM Lorenzo SystmOne Clinical Systems Trainer - >35k Yorkshire

My client is looking to employ a number of health care professionals with health IT systems experience within the Primary Care sector to meet the ...

CIO50 2008
The silicon.com CIO50 2008 profiles the most influential and innovative tech chiefs in the UK across all industries and organisation size, from the biggest FTSE100 companies to high growth dot-com start ups and the public sector. The list was voted on by the UK CIO community and a panel of experts. Find out more in our latest special report.




Quick Sitemap Links: