'Stick with programme' IT czar tells foundations

Foundation trusts that opt out of the national programme for NHS IT will be buying inefficiently and risking data incompatibility, NHS IT director general Richard Granger warned this week.

In an exclusive interview with HSJ, the IT czar said foundation trusts would face 'significant inefficiencies' if they made use of freedoms to set up their own IT systems.

Although foundation trusts will be under an obligation to 'cooperate' with the national IT procurement programme, and to ensure their systems are fully compatible with it, they will not be obliged to be part of the programme itself. Trusts that have already spent heavily on their own IT systems are particularly likely to be tempted away from the national programme and its associated costs.

Mr Granger said: 'If a foundation trust wished to procure systems set inside its own facilities, it will have to comply fully with [our] data interchange standards.'

He continued: 'We provide the easiest means of compliance and when you look at systems purchased contemporaneously with the national programme, for instance the recent purchase by some trusts of electronic patient records systems, there are clearly significant inefficiencies in local purchasing.

'It is very difficult for small groups of NHS organisations to buy large-scale systems; we have people [for whom] that is all they do and have great experience, ' the IT director claimed.

Mr Granger will meet foundation trust regulator Bill Moyes next month to discuss the issue, but he said there were no 'matters of principle' left to be resolved.

He said: 'I think everyone is in agreement that it is essential that data on patients be available cohesively throughout the NHS and foundation trusts do not alter that.

There are not any matters of principle to be resolved.'

A spokesperson for Mr Moyes said: 'There is a duty in the terms of their authorisation for foundation trusts to ensure [that] their IT systems are effective and they have inter-operability with the national system. That is a key element.

'But if a foundation trust believes it can procure its own systems, given it satisfies the terms of its authorisation to work effectively and efficiently with the rest of the NHS, then it should be allowed to do so.'

Mr Granger was speaking to HSJ ahead of his address to the annual Healthcare Computing conference in Harrogate.

He said the appointment of two high-level ambassadors for the programme, announced on Monday, was not an admission of the programme's failure to engage the service so far.

Health minister John Hutton announced at this week's conference that deputy chief medical officer Aidan Halligan and Department of Health director of delivery John Bacon would lead on engagement with clinicians and management respectively.

Mr Granger rejected criticism that the appointment had been made because the programme had neglected to communicate its message to the service. He said that now was the right time for communication.

'We can never do enough, but what would people rather have - glossy brochures followed by two years of delay?

'I've faced some hard choices about where I put my time but what people on the ground want is us delivering on what we promise and that is non-negotiable.

'Most of the clinicians interested [in the programme] would, 18 months ago, have described the chances of getting where we are today as extremely slim.'

Mr Granger also revealed that the programme would be holding nine conferences - four nationally and five locally - in the next 12 months.

Peter Hutton, chair of the national clinical advisory board to the programme, had earlier told delegates that more needed to be done to bring clinicians on board.

'To date, there has not been enough communication between the national and the local [service].'