South Norfolk MP Richard
Bacon has said that patient care will suffer if local health trusts are forced to meet the rising costs of a new NHS IT network.
Mr Bacon, a member of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: "Most hospital trusts are very stretched. I would like to know where all the money is coming from to pay for this project".
Officials at the Department of Health have estimated that the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) - Britain's biggest IT project - is likely to cost three to five times more than stated by ministers earlier this year and that total costs may exceed £30 billion.
With many local hospital trusts, including the Norfolk and Norwich, already facing big deficits, questions have been raised as to whether hospitals can fund all their existing commitments and still pay for the new IT systems.
Mr Bacon, a critic of the programme's management, said: "This is huge money and raises some very serious questions. If trusts are not given the money to pay for the national programme, how on earth are they going fund it?".
"If trusts can't get buy-in from their clinicians, why would they even want to fund it? Will this mean patients waiting even longer for treatment while billions of pounds are spent on unproven systems?".
Mr Bacon has tabled a
question in the House of Commons to ask the Health Secretary exactly
what burdens will be placed on health trusts around the country.
12 February 204
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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