MPs call for rethink on 'unworkable' NHS care records system

2 Aug 11
MPs have called on the Department of Health to reconsider its plans for an NHS care records system following a series of failings.

Lucy Phillips | 3 August 2011

MPs have called on the Department of Health to reconsider its plans for an NHS care records system following a series of failings.

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A report by the Public Accounts Committee, published today, says the DoH will not be able to achieve its original aim of a fully integrated care records system across the health service. The department has also not demonstrated the benefits of the £2.7bn spent on the project since it began in 2002. It is now relying on individual trusts to develop systems that are compatible with the programme. This could lead to inconsistencies across the country and extra costs to NHS organisations to connect up, the group of cross-party MPs say.

PAC chair Margaret Hodge said: ‘Trying to create a one-size-fits-all system in the NHS was a massive risk and has proven to be unworkable.’

She added that the DoH should now urgently review whether it is worth continuing with the remaining elements of the care records system. The £4.3bn which the department 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.’

The report, the National Programme for IT in the NHS: an update on the delivery of detailed care records systems, also criticises the DoH’s handling of its suppliers for the project. One supplier, CSC, has yet to deliver the bulk of systems it is contracted to supply – yet it will be more expensive to terminate the contract than to complete it. The other supplier, BT, has also not delivered against its original contract.

Hodge also warned that the committee had been left unsure how the wider health reforms and NHS restructuring would affect the future management and governance of the care records system.

‘The NHS trusts who will take on the risks have no contractual relationship with existing suppliers and no information about potential future costs,’ she added.


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