England’s NPfIT: an overview from the touchline
The UK’s first director of NHS information systems, Michael Fairey,
looks at England’s chances of succeeding in its ambitions for a nationwide
patient records system.
ABSTRACT
IT deployment in the NHS in England has centrally funded investment, the
context of an overarching healthcare-modernisation plan, political
engagement and an unquestioned need for its wider use. The size of the NHS’s
National Programme for IT; the speed with which it was set up and expects to
deliver; the manner in which engagement with users of the proposed systems
was initiated; continual fluctuations in NHS organisational structure; and
current financing of investment in ICT, however, pose serious risks to the
National Programme’s successful completion. These advantages and threats are
discussed by the author, drawing from the experience of 37 years of
introducing IT and information systems into NHS ways of working.
Br J Healthcare Comput Info Manage 2006; 23(3): 17–19 |
