GP representatives claim that PCTs are failing to fund IT upgrades for GP practices despite receiving £80m of GP Systems of Choice (GPSoC) funding.
The BMA’s General Practitioner Committee has told local medical committees to find out how the money is being spent after practices contacted the GPC because their PCT refused to fund an IT upgrade.
The funds were made available to fund essential infrastructure upgrades required for practices to fully benefit from the NHS IT programme.
NHS Connecting for Health was unable to confirm how much of the £80m has been spent so far and on what
Dr Paul Cundy, chairman of the GPC’s IT sub-committee, said £80m of GPSoC funding had been released to PCTs in July last year as a contribution to the costs of upgrading GP practices’ IT equipment.
He told EHI Primary Care: “We have had reports from practices saying they need an upgrade and that their PCT is saying it doesn’t have the money which is untrue because there is the equivalent of £9000 per practice in the system.”
Dr Cundy said LMCs should ask their PCTs how much they were given and what the money has been spent on.
He added: “Some PCTs must either not be spending it or viring it to pay off their debts or spending it on other things.”
PCTs have been told to spend the capital funding in line with Connecting for Health’s GP IT infrastructure specification. The specification’s four priorities for upgrades are networking infrastructure and service upgrades/migration to a hosted system followed by anti-virus, desktop support and business continuity services, scanner and document management software and then workstations, monitor and printers.
Details of the funding allocations http://deposits.parliament.uk/ were released by health minister Ben Bradshaw in a written answer to a Parliamentary question. The NHS Operating Framework for 2007/08 required all PCTs to upgrade IT assets to achieve compliance with CfH’s specification by December 2007.
A spokesperson for CfH was unable to confirm how much of the £80m funding has been spent so far, or to give details on what it had been spent..
She said: “£80m was allocated to PCTs by the Department of Heath in July 2007 as a contribution towards the costs of achieving compliance with the GP IT General Practice IT Infrastructure Specification. The NHS Operating Framework for 2007/08 Guidance for Preparation of Local IM&T Plans requires all PCTs to upgrade IT assets to achieve compliance with the specification by December 2007. In line with NHS management policy the strategic health authorities monitor achievement against these targets and not against individual items of spend.”
The CfH spokesperson said the Operating Framework did not include a deadline for PCTs to spend the funds.
She added: “If the PCT has met the requirements of the specification this year they may choose to negotiate locally to carry over funding for upgrades that will be required in 08/09.”
CfH said GP practices that felt they were being refused funding for IT infrastructure which was in line with the specification should “ follow their normal escalation routes for IM&T matters. “
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