NHS IT chief issues threat to suppliers

THE head of the £6bn NHS National Programme for IT has admitted the project has faced problems over the past few months.

But speaking at Healthcare Computing 2005 in Harrogate this week, Richard Granger said it was typical for a large project to go through such a dip, and rounded on its critics.

He said action will be taken to address the challenges faced by the programme, and indicated this could mean some suppliers being replaced later this year.

'If they cannot do the job they will be replaced. We will not wait around for them to fix it,' he said. 'Some of that will occur over the next few months.'

The National Programme was established in 2002 to deliver a new broadband network to the NHS, known as N3, and a suite of applications to work over it, including electronic bookings, electronic prescriptions and a national care record service.

The project has recently come under attack for failing to engage with clinicians, and for slow progress on some fronts, including the Choose and Book national appointment booking service.

However, Granger said that the programme has delivered 5,000 GP connections to N3, the core platform of the data spine that will underpin the record service, and a 'booking system that works'.

He also said it has rolled out a new email system for the NHS and delivered software to pay GPs by results.

'In England we have this national pastime: when what the French would call "grands projets" go through a dip, we have attacks on them. 'I am very grateful to my team for holding their nerve as this has happened over the past few months,' he said.

He also announced the programme has a new senior responsible owner in the Department of Health, group director of health and social care delivery John Bacon.

The programme is also to become an NHS agency, under the new name - 'Connecting for Health'.

• After much wrangling, GPs will be able to carry on using practice systems from market leader Emis.

  The company has signed a deal with North West local service provider CSC, and changes to the structure of the National Programme mean GPs across the country will now be able to use software offered by any LSP, not only the one in their region.