NHS wants extra £5bn for IT plans

The Department of Health (DoH) has asked the Treasury for an extra £5bn to spend on IT - with improving NHS broadband links as its first priority.

A confidential draft DoH strategy, 'Delivering 21st Century IT Support for the NHS' is due to be published this summer. The document, seen by Computing, sets out an investment programme for harnessing IT to modernise the NHS and deliver more responsive patient services.

The extra £5bn will be spread over six years from April 2003, roughly doubling the NHS IT budget in line with recommendations in the Wanless report published in April. Funds will be held centrally and ring-fenced for IT.

Phase one of the draft implementation strategy focuses on rapidly developing the NHS IT infrastructure, improving broadband capacity to provide staff with access to core clinical applications.

'The key applications in this phase will be electronic records, booking and prescribing,' said the strategy.

The plan says health care professionals will require safe, fast, modern IT systems to support them in their work.

It recognises that low levels of secure, high-bandwidth connectivity for NHS staff, backed by means of authenticating users to access sensitive patient information, have been a critical barrier to the effective use of IT as a strategic tool.

The new strategy aims to ensure all clinicians and support staff have a minimum of 128kb/s broadband links by December 2005, while links between trusts are to be increased to a minimum of 2mb/s.

In addition to broadband access the strategy says that a comprehensive programme will be implemented to address confidentiality, authentication and consent issues.

An 'IT czar' will be appointed to oversee delivery of the strategy. The preferred route for implementation is identified as 'strategic outsourcing' with new 'development partnerships' to be formed with consortia of suppliers, providing a massive boost for UK IT vendors.