NHS IT needs hospital buy-in

£12bn health service programme needs a refresh, says Commons health committee

Delays putting in hospital systems are holding up the £12bn programme

NHS patients have been inadequately informed of their options with regards to electronic health records, says the influential House of Commons health committee.

The hard-hitting review published today also blames "a lack of local involvement" in delivering the highly-centralised project, with hospitals left "at the bottom of the food chain" of the £12bn programme being led by Connecting for Health (CfH).

Four years after setting out a clear vision for local electronic records systems, descriptions of the scope and capability are still "vague and inconsistent", and although the national broadband network has been completed, progress in other areas had been "disappointing".

The biggest difficulties are with the implementation of local hospitals' Patient Administration Systems (PAS), which have been "seriously delayed", say MPs. And Lorenzo, one of the two main PAS, is not due to be trialed until next year.

There have been "important benefits" from the scheme. But it needs a refresh, says the report.

"By clearly restating its aims, providing timetables and indicating how they will be met, and ensuring local organisations take charge of deployment, CfH can still ensure that the electronic patients records programme is a success," it says.

The committee's findings follow another report by Sir Derek Wanless, whose initial recommendations in 2002 persuaded then-chancellor Gordon Brown to add 1p to national insurance contributions to pay for improvements to the NHS. Wanless' updated report says his vision of NHS IT services is being "seriously undermined " by the IT programme's delays.

"Well-documented problems and delays that have beset the programme and have the potential seriously to undermine the productivity gains envisaged," it says.