Tories and Lib Dems attack NHS IT system cutbacks

The government has spent more than £12bn attempting to modernise the NHS IT system

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have criticised the government's plans to cut back spending on the NHS IT system, arguing that the move is a clear sign that the system has failed the public.

The plans were discussed by chancellor Alistair Darling on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, and additional details are due to be released in the pre-budget report on Wednesday.

"The NHS had a quite expensive IT system that, frankly, isn't essential to the front line," said Darling. "It's something I think we don't need to go ahead with just now."

Commenting on the news, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "After seven years Labour have finally acknowledged what we've said for years: that the procurement for NHS IT was costing billions and not delivering.

"The opportunity cost to the NHS also measures billions of pounds. This is another government IT procurement disaster. It just shows you can't trust Labour on spending efficiency."

Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary Norman Lamb added: "Labour has been in denial for years and this is a belated and partial recognition of the scale of their failure.

"The truth is that the national programme should be abandoned in its entirety, subject to existing contractual obligations, and instead we should start building from the bottom."

The original cost of the system was supposed to be £2.3bn, but has now risen to around £12.4bn.

"The chancellor and the secretary of state for health have examined options for savings on the NHS IT system, and more details will be set out in due course," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Health.

The London Royal Free is one of the hospitals leading the way in the rollout of the Cerner software, which is being installed to create a care records system throughout the NHS known as the NHS Spine. The hospital has had numerous problems with the installation, as has been noted by the press.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said that it could not comment on the cutbacks until more "definite details" had been outlined by the government in the pre-budget report.

She would not comment on whether the hospital endorsed the centralised IT programme, and declined to provide comment on a separate issue of whether the hospital endorsed the NHS IT system.

The public sector spends about £16bn a year on technology, representing 4.6 per cent of overall public sector expenditure, according to recent independent benchmarking by the Operational Efficiency Programme.

Seven out of 10 public sector IT projects fail, according to a recent study cited by the Conservatives that also chimes with remarks made two years ago by department for work and pensions chief information officer Joe Harley.