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   MP says Blair's NHS computer dream “won't work”  

MP says records system may put patients at risk
The last few months have seen a succession of disasters for the NHS national programme for IT

South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon has called for a halt to the troubled national programme to overhaul NHS computer systems, as the Observer newspaper revealed a confidential document showing that the multi-billion pound project – the personal initiative of Prime Minister Tony Blair – is in crisis.

The document was apparently written by one of the scheme’s most senior executives. It suggests that the programme, the world’s largest civilian IT project, faces such grave problems that hospitals would be better off having never tried to implement it.


The story comes at the end of a week when IT systems at 80 hospitals and NHS trusts across the West Midlands and the North West were struggling to recover from the worst computer crash in the history of the health service.

Richard Bacon MP, the member of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee to whom the document was first sent, commented:

“The last few months have seen a succession of disasters for the NHS national programme for IT: The North West and West Midlands have seen the worst computer crash in NHS history; the London region has seen its major software supplier sacked and the Health Protection Agency warning of a serious risk to the health of children because IT failures have made a mess of vital vaccination programmes; the Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital failed all waiting list targets as a direct result of the Connecting for Health deployment; and new systems in North West and West Midlands hospitals have repeatedly lost or mislaid patient records.  The list of failures and delays grows ever longer. Two and a half years in, the programme is two years late”.

“Now it seems that some of the most senior officials in the NHS know perfectly well that the National Programme will never work properly – indeed that many hospitals would now be better off if they had never taken part in the scheme in the first place”.

“The National Programme has already cost well over a billion pounds and the final tally if it continues could rise to over £15 billion. Much of this money will be wasted. Worse still, the health of patients could be put at risk. This scheme was the personal brainchild of the Prime Minister and he must now act at once to bring this failed experiment to a speedy end”.

6 August 2006

See also:
 PARLIAMENT: MP concerned over spiralling NHS IT costs
PARLIAMENT: MP asks Health Secretary to block IT contract
PARLIAMENT: NHS 'fined' millions by computer companies
SPEECHES: The National Programme for IT in the NHS
SPEECHES: IT in the NHS - 29 June 2004
SPEECHES: IT in the NHS - 12 February 2004
PARLIAMENT: MP says NHS overspend on IT may hurt patients
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