Published: 08/05/2003, Volume II3, No. 5854 Page 1
The question of whether the national IT strategy will work has now been replaced by what will it deliver, says Lyn Whitfield
The national programme's impact on the world of NHS IT can be assessed by what was not discussed at this year's Healthcare Computing conference.
Debates about whether NHS IT should be subject to central control, which have dominated HC over the past few years, simply did not take place.
The general - and generally accepted - failure of local delivery and the arrival of the national programme had rendered them redundant. Ideal or not, central control is here to stay.
Nor was there much debate about whether the national programme will deliver.The personality of its head, Richard Granger, and the momentum it has achieved, seem to have instilled confidence that it will.
Instead, the question was: 'What will it deliver?'New computers and systems will not be enough; the real trick will be to get people to use them and change working practices.
Doubts about whether the national programme can do that have been distilled into questions about whether it can secure clinician support (see below).
But Frank Burns, architect of the 1998 IT strategy, told the Harrogate conference that one reason local delivery failed was that chief executives - generally - did not support it.Chief executives, he said, should not be allowed to pass the 'poisoned chalice'back to the Department of Health.They should be made responsible for local implementation.
The DoH needs to take Mr Burns'point on board.All NHS professions will need to adapt to new IT systems.But it is the job of senior management to take the lead in ensuring their organisations get the best out of them. l
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