NHS records 'two years behind schedule'
Health minister says electronic records are now due in late 2007 or early 2008
The minister leading government plans for electronic medical records for every NHS patient has confirmed the project will run at least two years behind schedule.
Lord Warner also says the total cost of the project will be approximately £20bn, taking into account local training, IT upgrade and integration costs on top of the £6.2bn committed to the central National Programme for NHS IT. He told the Financial Times the electronic records aspect of the project would not be rolled out until ‘late 2007 or early 2008’.
Delays have been caused in part by software issues as well as a dispute within the medical profession about what information should be included on the national medical record and how data should be added.
The National Programme has awarded national contracts worth £6.2bn over 10 years to create the broadband links and infrastructure to provide all 50 million NHS patients with electronic records.
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