Report urges IT improvements for Scottish NHS

Less reliance on locally developed system essential, says report

The Scottish Executive must improve the way it manages IT to support care in the NHS in Scotland and adopt a more corporate approach, according to a report published last week.

The Audit Scotland report recommends that the NHS should move away from locally developed IT systems and adopt a clear national strategy.

While acknowledging that work is under way to enable this, the report said: ‘Previous freedoms to procure and implement systems locally will be curtailed to ensure that local systems align with the move to electronic health records.’

Budgeting is another issue – the NHS does not know how much it spends on information management and technology.

‘A lot of decision making does not take into account spend at the local level. There is a need to understand local costs and the costs associated with the life of a project,’ said Barbara Hurst, director of public reporting.

‘Phased funding will help by identifying expected achievements at each stage,’ she said.

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