Scrap money-wasting NHS IT project, MPs report says
A scheme to integrate NHS patient care records is wasting millions of pounds should be ditched, according to a damning report from MPs.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee said parts of the National Programme for IT – designed to create electronic patient records for use across the NHS in England – have proved unworkable.
Launched in 2002 with an estimated cost of more than £11 billion, the Department of Health has spent £6.4 billion on the programme so far, including £2.7 billion on patient records.
MPs said the intention of creating electronic records was a “worthwhile aim” but was one “that has proved beyond the capacity of the department to deliver”.
They added: “Implementation of alternative up-to-date IT systems has fallen significantly behind schedule and costs have escalated.
“The department could have avoided some of the pitfalls and waste if they had consulted at the start of the process with health professionals.
“The department has failed to demonstrate the benefits achieved for the £2.7 billion spent to date on care records systems.”
The report said officials have accepted they are unable to deliver the planned system and are “now relying on individual NHS trusts to develop systems compatible with those in the programme”.
This means different parts of the country will have different systems.
Labour MP Margaret Hodge, chair of the committee, said: “The Department of Health is not going to achieve its original aim of a fully integrated care records system across the NHS.
“Trying to create a one-size-fits-all system in the NHS was a massive risk and has proven to be unworkable.”
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “This is yet more evidence that Labour’s botched approach to IT in the NHS failed taxpayers and failed patients.
“Their one-size-fits-all IT programme has once again been found unworkable.”
To read the committee's report in full, click here