Flagship NHS IT programmes head for the rocks

John Suffolk will decide on the future of CfH and the NPfIT

A report on web site E-Health Insider (EHI) states that the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) will be dramatically scaled down, and Connecting for Health (CfH) will be rebranded, losing much of its remit to the Department of Health Informatics Directorate.

The government has been reviewing its major IT projects, and it appears that neither the NPfIT nor CfH emerged favourably from the analysis.

The recommendations of the review will be evaluated today by a panel chaired by government chief information officer John Suffolk. CfH said that an announcement will follow in the next two weeks, but declined to comment further.

Much of CfH's existing mandate could be given to the Technology Office at the Department of Health Informatics Directorate. The EHI report stated that: " ...this will focus on standards and interoperability, together with ongoing management of contracts."

The report suggests that in place of large national initiatives such as NPfIT, more responsibility will be given to local authorities, with less funding available for IT projects from central budgets.

“The National Programme will become ‘a’ programme, rather than ‘the’ national programme,” said a source quoted by EHI.