Scottish NHS IT reform spend inefficient, says Microsoft

“NHS Scotland is still operating in a piecemeal way,” he told Scotland . “Royal Bank of Scotland has 100,000 employees and one IT system. The NHS in Scotland is about the same size, but there are 14 NHS trusts and even within each trust there may be four different systems. They even have different email addresses."

McKenzie said that Scotland was missing an opportunity to pool their resources, and that Microsoft was “making more money out of the mess.” He criticised the “many layers of decision-making in Scotland" in NHS IT reform.

“I would sooner see Scotland pay less. We are not about short-term revenue, but being a leader with a solution," he told the paper.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Executive replied that procurement procedures were in the process of being updated, with a pooled electronic procurement programme being rolled out across the country. Non-technological goods were already being handled by a central body, the National Distribution Centre.

McKenzie admitted that there was a lot of work still to be done in the Scottish NHS: “To deliver the next generation of health care it will need technology not yet funded or designed. They still have to do some things that England has done three years ago."

E-Health Insider contacted Microsoft to verify the comments. Microsoft replied that while McKenzie stood by what he said, he felt that he had been “selectively quoted” by the Scotland on Sunday. “We are having open dialogue with the NHS," explained a spokesperson.

Scotland’s e-health strategy was published in April 2004, as a response to the ‘Partnership of Care’ white paper. The ‘National eHealth/IM&T strategy’ promises a complex, multi-layered implementation, with emphasis on local and specialist care.