The Liberal Democrats are calling for a more localised approach to NHS IT and an end to the centralised nationwide applications favoured by the £12bn National Programme for IT.

In an article for Smarthealthcare.com, Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb says the way to address the problems of the controversial NHS project is to “banish the idea” of national IT schemes.

“Successive governments have fallen for the charms of smooth talking management consultants and IT salesmen who have waxed lyrical about the potential savings and efficiencies of bespoke software packages and complex databases,” he said.

“Instead of thinking about how national programmes can transform the NHS, we need to be much more realistic about what we are trying to achieve.”

The Lib Dem approach is starting to mirror that of the Conservatives, who have called for patients to be given greater control over their medical records and for NHS IT to focus more on clinic needs.

Tory leader David Cameron has gone as far as suggesting that internet-based electronic patient record systems from Microsoft and Google could have a place in the NHS – although even fellow party member David Davis has scoffed at such an idea.