NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT)

An interesting article on the front page of this week's Computer Weekly. It concerns the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT. It appears that in February 2007, NHS Connecting for Health and the Department of Health claimed in a briefing paper to the Prime Minister that "much of the programme is complete, with software delivered to time and budget".

Computer Weekly report that they have seen NPfIT minutes that show that the services supplier SCS has made penalty payments following delays in rolling out software in the North, Midlands and East of England. CSC has refused to comment but briefing papers to a North West NPfIT board, seen by Computer Weekly, say that the penalties relate to "the financial consequences arising from deployment delays".

Computer Weekly further report that Helen Bellairs, the chief executive of Western Cheshire Primary Care Trust told the NPfIT board of the North West Strategic Health Authority that although there had been some successes there were several "major issues" with the National Programme.

NHS Connecting for Health said that the organisation was unable to comment.


Hmmm