MPs urge Department of Health to consider shelving wasteful NHS IT system

MPs have urged the Department of Health (DoH) to consider dropping the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) despite spending £2.7bn to date.

The Public Accounts Committee report said that, despite this huge sum, there are no tangible benefits being derived from the system.

It added that the DoH has been slow to produce evidence to the contrary, and that risks around data security are also undermining the system.

"The department failed to meet its commitment to report to the committee by summer 2010 on the benefits delivered by the programme. A statement of benefits to March 2010 was not provided until May 2011, more than a year out of date," the report said.

"We are very concerned at the lack of evidence of risk management of security issues which may arise as a result of medical records being held electronically. The department must address possible compromises in data security."

Margaret Hodge MP, chair of the committee, argued that the DoH is not going to achieve its aim of creating an integrated care records system across the NHS and should consider shelving the project.

"Trying to create a one-size-fits-all system in the NHS was a massive risk and has proven unworkable. The department has been unable to demonstrate what benefits have been delivered from the £2.7bn spent on the project so far," she said.

"It should now urgently review whether it is worth continuing with the remaining elements of the care records system. The £4.3bn [it] expects to spend might be better used to buy systems that are proven to work, that are good value for money and that deliver demonstrable benefits to the NHS."

Edward Hamilton, a public sector IT analyst with Analysys Mason, told V3 he wasn't surprised the contract had come in for such severe criticism given the governments track record with large IT projects.

"The government has to realise that it doesn't have the ability to run large IT projects to time or in budget. It would be better off looking to do small, local projects that can run to tighter time-scales," he said.

"It's going to be very hard for the government to write off the project, especially when there is confusion over how the NHS will be managed in the future that has yet to be resolved."

The National Audit Office also criticised the NPfIT in May, noting similar concerns to the committee's and claiming that the vision of giving every patient an electronic care record will not be achieved.

The government announced earlier this week that it had saved £450m in its IT expenditure since coming to power by reducing large-scale contracts and cutting unnecessary spend elsewhere, as part of overall savings of £3.75m.