BMA Response To National Audit Office Report On The National Programme For IT In The NHS, UK

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 18 May 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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The BMA calls on NHS Connecting for Health1 to learn from the lessons outlined in the National Audit Office (NAO) report "The National Programme for IT in the NHS: Progress since 2006"2

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, GP negotiator with responsibility for IT said:

"It is clear from the NAO report that the setting of unrealistic deadlines has been very damaging to National Programme for IT. Slipping deadlines for new IT systems and the premature release of systems that are not fit for purpose has been deeply frustrating for NHS staff leaving many doctors thoroughly disillusioned with the programme.

"The NAO report highlights that the success of the NHS IT programme will depend on the commitment of NHS staff. The major challenge for local health organisations will be to create an environment that fosters the commitment and confidence of staff. This will only happen if the progress on the development of the programme becomes more transparent. Staff must be kept abreast of how new technology is going to impact on their hospital or practice. More work needs to be done on achieving this at a local level."

He added:

"In addition, there is much to be done to inform the public about electronic patient records. The adoption of consent to view3 system, as recommended in the recent independent evaluation by University College London (UCL) of the Summary Care Record4, may go some way improving the public awareness of electronic patient records."

Notes

Historically the BMA has supported the principle behind the overhaul of IT systems in the NHS but has been critical of the lack of clinician involvement in the early years of the programme.

1 NHS Connecting for Health - The government body charged with delivering the National programme for IT in the NHS

2 The National Audit Office report will be published on 00:01 hours on Friday 16 May 2008 - The National Programme for IT in the NHS: Progress since 2006

3 A "consent to view" model would mean that a patient would be asked explicitly, on each occasion, before their summary record is viewed, for example during out-of-hours care or when they go to A&E.

4The independent evaluation of the summary care record is available from the UCL website here.

http://www.bma.org.uk