Major IT investment is critical to NHS reforms

Increased IT spending is fundamental to improving the health service, the author of the NHS review has told Computing.

And the proposed extra £1bn a year could be a major boost to the UK technology industry as a whole, say analysts.

The government is yet to announce details of how it will spend the money realised from tax rises, announced in last week's Budget, but it will be hugely influenced by the recommendations in the Wanless report, a Treasury-backed review of the NHS.

Author Derek Wanless told Computing that one of the starting points for a reformed NHS will have to be a new IT infrastructure.

Technology spending must double to £2.2bn a year from 2003, according to the former NatWest chief executive.

'Effective investment in IT must be a key priority if we are to see the integrated infrastructure with consistent standards across the service that my review identified as essential,' said Wanless.

'That's why we incorporated projections for an immediate doubling of IT investment from its current level of £1.1bn.

'Without a major advance in the effective use of IT, the health service will find it increasingly difficult to deliver the efficient, high-quality service which the public will demand,' he said.

An extra £1bn a year could generate as many as 3,000 jobs in IT, says Meta Group programme director Ashim Pal.

'It would have a huge impact on the overall economics of the industry - it is something equivalent to the spending of the top five companies in the UK on IT,' he said.

Bigger budgets would also have an impact on national broadband targets, with investment likely in a broadband NHS Net linking hospitals and surgeries across the UK.

Both the Wanless report and the Budget represent positive signs for health service broadband because more money will mean a faster network, says NHS Information Authority head of access to information Carrie Armitage.

'NHS Net users are crying out for more bandwidth,' she said.

'So any extra money is welcome and the scale on which it appears to be available will make broadband a reality for the NHS.'