The man running Connecting for Health, Gordon Hextall, says the NHS IT programme too often gets a negative press when in reality it has achieved much, though still has much more to do.
The greatest area of work still outstanding is identified as delivering to patients the benefits of integrated electronic patient records.
Writing exclusively in a new column for E-Health Insider, Hextall, CfH’s chief operating officer and interim director of programme and systems delivery, stresses the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) is “not a single entity”, but instead a actually “a lot of component programmes”.
Taken together, Hextall says NPfIT’s component programmes have the “potential to transform healthcare as we know it for generations to come”.
Seeking to dispell what he terms “myths” that have risen up around the programme Hextall writes: “The National Programme does not have a “rip and replace” approach.
“This puts a large dependency on integrating new national and local NPfIT systems with existing IT systems,” writes Hextall.
He goes on to detail the work NHS CfH has done on integration and interoperability, including the creation of a National Integration Centre – modelled on the Stock Exchange – and on promoting the development and adoption of international standards.
CFH’s COO says the aim of NPfIT remains clear: “enabling important patient information to be available when and where patients need treating”. This is something patients rightly expect the NHS to be able to deliver already, he adds.
Later in the article Hextall outlines achievements to date by the NHS, CfH and its suppliers, and gives warm thanks to everyone involved.
CfH’s chief concludes by acknowledging much more is yet to be done, particularly to ensure patients see the benefits of integrated electronic patient records.
Link
The full Gordon Hextall article