NAO reports slams NHS IT delays

The introduction of a new IT system for the National Health Service is taking too long, according to a report from the National Audit Office. 

"There is support among NHS staff for what the programme is seeking to achieve, but also significant concerns among some staff that the programme is moving slower than expected, and that clarity is lacking as to when systems will be delivered and what they will do," the report said.

The National Programme for IT in the NHS report, released today, also found that NHS staff were not consulted sufficiently before the IT buying programme began.

"The Department and NHS Connecting for Health decided to conclude the bulk of procurement activities before focusing on communicating with and engaging NHS staff," the report said.

"Wider engagement and mobilisation of the NHS was not started until NHS Connecting for Health judged that procurement had reached a sufficient stage of maturity to be able to communicate its outcome in a meaningful and efficient way.

"It was concerned that to have done so earlier might have raised expectations which were either speculative or may not have been met, and there were also resourcing constraints."

Dr Richard Vautrey, a GP and member of the British Medical Council's GP's committee, told Radio 4's Today programme this morning: "If we'd been able to sit down with those who were planning the system at a very early stage we would have been able to develop it in a very different, more gradual way and we would have been able to avoid the frustrations many practices have had."

Vautrey described the system as a hit and miss affair. "Often it does work reasonably well and the more you get experience of it then it does start to work for you, but it still remains unreliable and I think that's the problem," he said.

Sir John Bourn, comptroller and auditor general of the UK, said that progress had been made but there was still some way to go. "Significant challenges remain for the Department and NHS Connecting for Health," he said.