Report criticises NHS IT

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A report on the National Health Service (NHS) has called for more innovation and proposes a £100 million fund to encourage high-tech healthcare.

The NHS' £12 billion national programme for IT (NPfIT) is a magnet for criticism, and it was no different in the NHS Next Stage Review, authored by parliamentary undersecretary of state, Lord Darzi.

The report stressed the necessity of the NPfIT to deal with increasing amounts of information, but said not enough is being done. "The NHS has a great deal of data, but a paucity of information. Much of the information we do have is available to limited numbers of people, is often inconsistent with that held elsewhere, and is frequently not available at the point of need," Darzi said in the report.

The NPfIT is an opportunity to improve that, the report said. "The NHS's recent investment in technology has created the opportunity to make a step-change. The national infrastructure established by the National Programme for Information Technology has connected every hospital and GP surgery to a common secure network. Clinicians should benefit from the implementation of digital access to X-rays and scans - Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS). But I believe more work is now needed to ensure that the Connecting for Health programme delivers real clinical benefits, and I will be considering in the second stage of my Review how best to achieve this," said Darzi in the report.

But he said that despite the programme being two-thirds complete, staff are lacking enthusiasm for the project and its potential. "In my visits across the NHS I have detected little enthusiasm for doing something completely different," he said.

Speaking more generally about medical innovation, he said research and development have helped save lives, but more work is needed. "Since the creation of the NHS, innovations in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and clinical care have improved the quality of patients' lives," he said in the report. "But the NHS does not always make best use of innovation."

While the report praised the increase in spending on research - including a recent commitment to invest £15 billion over the next decade on medical research - it said more needs to be done. "Despite some excellent work taking place locally, there remains some reluctance within the NHS to adopt new products and procedures," the report said.

The report called for the creation of a new Health Innovation Council (HIC), with £100 million in funding.

Following today's interim report, Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched the next stage of the review, which will be released next spring. "The British people want an NHS that is there for them when they need it, at the time that they want, with the doctors they want, and the choices that they themselves want to make. So renewing the NHS is my most immediate priority in the job that I hold," Brown said.

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