NHS chief rules out review of £12bn IT system

By Nicholas Timmins,Public Policy Editor

FINANCIAL TIMES
Published: February 2 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 2 2007 02:00

There is to be no independent review of the National Health Service's controversial £12bn information technology programme according to the head of the NHS, although significant changes in the way it is implemented appear to be on the way.

David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, said nothing "has led me to believe that we are wildly off course" or that "a major review of the programme is required at this particular stage".

He was speaking at a recent conference with a wide range of interested parties at which concerns about the confidentiality and security of the system were aired, along with debates about how to get doctors, nurses and managers to own the programme, while speeding its implementation.

His conclusion that he had "seen no evidence" that a review was needed was greeted with disappointment by Martyn Thomas, a spokesman for 23 computer academics who have been calling for a review and who had earlier challenged Mr Nicholson to launch one.

The academics maintain that there remain questions about the technical architecture and security of the system while arguing that it is displaying many of the symptoms of past large scale IT failures.

Mr Nicholson said the programme did need to be reformed and needed to become more "self critical in a very open and public way".

There were questions about whether it was trying to do "too much on too broad a front" and needed to be "focused down" on elements that could bring rapid benefits to patients, while the balance between national and local responsibilities needed to be resolved, he said.

Responsibility for implementation is being shifted away from Connecting for Health, the national programme, to strategic health authorities, with all NHS organisations now being told to produce and budget for an IT implementation plan.

However, the changes carry the risk that any significant slowing down of the project, or any big move away from national standardisation, could open up the NHS to claims for contract variation from the big suppliers - something both sides appear keen to avoid.