A King’s Fund report has called for the formation of a new NHS body part of whose role would be to co-ordinate a national approach to the development of information and communications technology (ICT) in the service. The report entitled “Government and the NHS: time for a new relationship” written by the King’s Fund’s health policy director, Steve Dewar, sets out the case for an agency, separate from the policy making apparatus of central government, which would agree realistic targets for the NHS and then take responsibility for delivering them. Dewar argues that this would enable the government to focus on policy issues rather than meddling with healthcare services on a day-to-day basis. He advocates a much stronger role for Parliament in holding both the government and the NHS to account for their respective responsibilities in policy and delivery. The report lists the development of ICT as one of the responsibilities to be assigned to the central agency, but it acknowledges that the degree of centralisation needed is far from clear cut. “There is a vigorous debate over the best approach to ICT and relative effectiveness of central specification versus local freedom. An agency model would require a clear policy to be adopted, and the case to be made for working within or outside the agency,” says the report. Responsibility for co-ordinating ICT would be one of a set of responsibilities for the proposed agency, the others being: agreeing targets; allocating funds; managing performance and improving organisations; setting clinical standards; co-ordinating research and development and negotiating pay frameworks. The report calls for a wider debate on the agency model proposed for the NHS, particularly within Parliament and the political parties and among health professionals.
