NHS IT making 'impressive' progress, says report

This year has seen "impressive milestones" for the NHS' £12 billion IT programme, according to a report from the Department of Health (DoH).

In a report forecasting a financial surplus of £983 million across NHS trusts this year, the DoH said the £12 billion National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has reached some impressive milestones.

"The first quarter of this year also saw some impressive milestones in the implementation of the NPfIT," David Flory, director general for

NHS Finance, Performance and Operations, wrote in the report. "NPfIT continues to make significant progress in providing robust and speedy infrastructure and systems to enable the NHS locally to be ever more responsive to providing better care for the patients they serve."

In the first quarter of this year, the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS), which handles digitised medical images, was fully implemented, with nearly 82 million such images stored in that period alone.

As well, between April and June of this year, eight Patient Administration Systems were rolled out to eight acute departments in hospitals across the country. Over a million appointments were made on the electronic Choose and Book system, while the Electronic Prescription Service now handles 11 per cent of daily prescriptions - over nine million in the first quarter alone.

Earlier this year, out-going NPfIT head Richard Granger said the programme was making good progress, but was being held back by "whingeing".

The report also praised the decentralisation of the upgrade process, saying it has given local bodies more influence on the roll out and implementation of the IT programme.

Aside from praising its IT programme, the DoH report also detailed positive progress in its goal to cut waiting times to 18 weeks and battling inequities in healthcare.

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