Premature tenders threaten NHS plan

IT suppliers are being invited to bid for work on the £5bn NHS IT programme before vital technical specifications have been completed.

Experts warn that unclear requirements at this early stage could lead to another government technology disaster.

The Department of Health (DoH) started advertising contracts this week for the five-year National Programme.

A key element of the programme is the development of an Integrated Care Records Service (ICRS) allowing electronic patient records to be accessed nationwide by authorised staff.

But completion of the DoH's consultation paper on ICRS has been delayed until 7 March.

The paper aims to answer fundamental questions such as: 'Are there any major gaps in the specification?' and 'Is the level of detail sufficient for procurement?'

High-profile public sector IT failures have often been caused by changes to requirements during a project.

The chain from the policy level to the person making the system work is weak at every link, says Dr Grant Kelly, chairman of the IT committee at the British Medical Association.

'The NHS can't accurately design for a programme of this size so it must be some sort of partnership,' he said.

'But in IT terms that's extremely difficult to control financially, and the situation we are in now simply reflects that. We have been here before so many times with grandiose government IT schemes.'

Shadow health spokesman Chris Grayling says the situation is 'a recipe for overspend and unnecessary re-engineering.'

'The reason projects go wrong is because departments change their minds through the course of the project. Why would you start work procuring something before you have finished the specification?' he said.

The DoH says the specification is being developed in parallel with purchasing.

'There is only one outcome, and that is the successful implementation of 21st century IT for the NHS,' said director general of NHS IT Richard Granger when the process of launched in December.