Can the NHS get connected?

doi:10.1136/bmj.b3647

Published 24 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3647
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3647

Feature

Health Informatics

Can the NHS get connected?

Michael Cross, freelance journalist

¹ London

michaelcross@fastmail.fm

The recent review of information technology in the NHS has onceagain highlighted problems with England’s national programme,reports Michael Cross

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Whatever the outcome of the next UK general election, whichis due by June 2010, the basic model of the National HealthService seems secure. David Cameron, leader of the front runningConservative party, has pledged to maintain the principle ofproviding a service free at the point of care and to exemptthe NHS from otherwise severe cuts in public spending.

However, political consensus does not extend to one high profilereform introduced under Labour—the £13bn ( ${euro}$ 15bn;$21bn) programme to computerise the NHS in England. The NHSNational Programme for Information Technology (often referredto as Connecting for Health, after the agency set up to runit) has emerged as a symbol of what opponents describe as thegovernment’s incompetence in procuring and developinginformation technology (IT) systems and cavalier attitude towardscivil liberties. Fears are now growing, even among the programme’scritics, that populist short term measures . . . [Full text of this article]