04.01.11
£11bn NHS IT project scrapped
The Government is set to announce the official end of the £11bn National Programme for IT, with hospitals now able to choose their own computer systems and ministers to take direct control of the remnants of the project.
The scheme was set up in 2002 under Labour, and has become infamous for its delays, cost over-runs and multiple problems. The original objective was to ensure that every patient had an electronic care record which could be rapidly transmitted between different parts of the NHS.
However, the Coalition Government’s review of the National Programme for IT has concluded that there is no longer any confidence that the plans can be delivered.
The report states: “This intention has proved beyond the capacity of the department to deliver and the department is no longer delivering a universal system. Implementation of alternative up-to-date IT systems has fallen significantly behind schedule and costs have escalated.”
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley will say: “Labour's IT programme let down the NHS and wasted taxpayers' money by imposing a top-down IT system on the local NHS, which didn't fit their needs.
“We will be moving to an innovative new system driven by local decision-making. This is the only way to make sure we get value for money from IT systems that better meet the needs of a modernised NHS.”
A spokesperson from the Department of Health said: “It was meant to be a very helpful thing for NHS staff and patients but instead has become this amazingly top-heavy, hideously expensive programme. The problem is, it didn't deliver.
“It was too ambitious, the technology kept changing, and loads and loads of money has been put into it. It's wasted a lot of money that should have been spent on nurses and improving patient care, and not on big international IT companies.”
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