Granger admits IT plan will cost trusts millions

NHS organisations will have to find millions of pounds to implement the national programme for IT, director general Richard Granger confirmed this week.

Mr Granger said NHS IT spending should rise to an average of 34 per cent of total expenditure by 2008. Current expenditure is 1.8 per cent.

He claimed that by 2008, NHS organisations should be seeing 'significant benefits in terms of performance and efficiency' from the national programme, making such an increase 'a satisfactory position to adopt'.

The£2.3bn national programme was created in 2002 and Mr Granger appears confident this investment will be maintained for the full length of the five-year settlement. But money to implement the programme will have to be found by local organisations, who should spend a further£850m this year. Some NHS IT directors have questioned whether trusts facing deficits and other pressures will find this money.

On Monday, it was announced that BT had won the£620m contract to build the NHS care records service, which will hold summary information for about 50 million patients and be accessible to 30,000 GPs and 270 acute, community and mental health trusts. BT also won the 10-year,£996m local service provider contract to provide new systems and support in London, while Accenture has won the£1.1bn LSP contract for the North East.