NHS IT chaos exposed by new e-mails
A computer project costing £6.2 billion that is central to Tony Blair’s National Health Service reforms is in “grave” danger of being “derailed”, leaked Whitehall e-mails reveal. The warning has been issued by Richard Granger, the £250,000-a-year civil servant in charge of what has been billed as the world’s biggest civil information technology project.
The scheme is central to the government’s plans to give patients wider choice by allowing GPs to book hospital appointments online with consultants throughout the country.
The problems have already caused a year-long delay in the booking system and now threaten to add millions to the cost of the project.
To date the system has made only about 20,000 appointments for patients. It was supposed to have made 250,000 by December 2004.
When it is fully operational the system is meant to be capable of making up to 9.5m first hospital appointments a year.
In the e-mail exchanges in September, Granger blames a senior civil servant in the Department of Health for the fiasco, criticising her repeated last-minute changes and failure to heed his advice.
Granger censures Margaret Edwards, the department’s director for access and patient choice, for adding numerous new specifications to the booking programme, known as Choose and Book. Granger writes: “Choose and Book’s £20m IT build contract is now in grave danger of derailing (not just destabilising) a £6.2 billion programme.” He concludes: “Unfortunately, your consistently late requests will not enable us to rescue the missed opportunities and targets.”
Sir Nigel Crisp, the NHS chief executive, was forced to admit to the Commons health select committee two weeks ago that the booking system was at least a year behind schedule. However, he failed to mention that the delay was having a serious impact on the entire project.
The National Audit Office has identified changes to specifications after the award of IT contracts as a key reason for regular delays and overspends on government projects.
Granger’s comments were triggered by an e-mail on September 9 from Edwards marked “Restricted — Policy” which begins: “We have a problem!” The e-mail reveals that patients and their GPs still cannot book treatment at any of the country’s 32 foundation trust hospitals by computer because they are not on its “choice menu”.
The email from Margaret Edwards was encrypted and cced to a limited distribution list. However Granger's reply was unencrypted and sent to a wider distribution list.
The 10 private sector treatment centres, set up by the government to reduce waiting lists, are also absent from the official list on the computer.
Edwards warns that the treatment centres and foundation trusts will not be on the “choice menu” until next summer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1869851,00.html
The scheme is central to the government’s plans to give patients wider choice by allowing GPs to book hospital appointments online with consultants throughout the country.
The problems have already caused a year-long delay in the booking system and now threaten to add millions to the cost of the project.
To date the system has made only about 20,000 appointments for patients. It was supposed to have made 250,000 by December 2004.
When it is fully operational the system is meant to be capable of making up to 9.5m first hospital appointments a year.
In the e-mail exchanges in September, Granger blames a senior civil servant in the Department of Health for the fiasco, criticising her repeated last-minute changes and failure to heed his advice.
Granger censures Margaret Edwards, the department’s director for access and patient choice, for adding numerous new specifications to the booking programme, known as Choose and Book. Granger writes: “Choose and Book’s £20m IT build contract is now in grave danger of derailing (not just destabilising) a £6.2 billion programme.” He concludes: “Unfortunately, your consistently late requests will not enable us to rescue the missed opportunities and targets.”
Sir Nigel Crisp, the NHS chief executive, was forced to admit to the Commons health select committee two weeks ago that the booking system was at least a year behind schedule. However, he failed to mention that the delay was having a serious impact on the entire project.
The National Audit Office has identified changes to specifications after the award of IT contracts as a key reason for regular delays and overspends on government projects.
Granger’s comments were triggered by an e-mail on September 9 from Edwards marked “Restricted — Policy” which begins: “We have a problem!” The e-mail reveals that patients and their GPs still cannot book treatment at any of the country’s 32 foundation trust hospitals by computer because they are not on its “choice menu”.
The email from Margaret Edwards was encrypted and cced to a limited distribution list. However Granger's reply was unencrypted and sent to a wider distribution list.
The 10 private sector treatment centres, set up by the government to reduce waiting lists, are also absent from the official list on the computer.
Edwards warns that the treatment centres and foundation trusts will not be on the “choice menu” until next summer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1869851,00.html
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