The NHS vision: modernisation via information

Lack of buy-in from clinical staff has, rightly or wrongly, been the major criticism levelled at the National Programme so far.

One of the key points raised at the Computing-led NHS Monitoring Group's July meeting was the lack of clear communication of the vision for the programme. There is no mission statement about what it will mean in practice and why it deserves support and commitment from clinical staff with demanding jobs to do. This 'big picture' will be one of the key factors in developing the buy-in that will be crucial to the programme's success.

Here Richard Granger, director general for NHS IT, outlines his vision.

Modernisation

The National Programme is an essential underpinning to the modernisation of the NHS.

It is inconceivable that we can successfully modernise the NHS to undertake the complexity of transactions within the service models that are emerging without having information about patients available at the point of care.

So the programme is about supporting the delivery of the 21st century health service through the use of information that is accurate and available.

It will, through a collection of measures, assist the modernisation of clinical practice and the delivery of a more customer-centric NHS.

The patient choice agenda around referred bookings, for example, is supported by the ebooking programme and would not be achievable without the technology providing the repository of available appointments by type, time and location.

You couldn't do without an IT system - for example, ensuring information flows between GPs and hospitals as patients get referred, and that a sufficiency of data is transferred rather than just a summary.

This is also true in reverse, when the patient is discharged from the hospital.

The National Programme is about ensuring that information is available as people move around the country. The same is true of the NHS workforce.

The programme is about ensuring that staff have access to information through systems with which they are familiar and we are increasing the number of points at which that information is available from approximately 500,000 to 800,000 over the next couple of years.