NHS IT programme must engage with doctors or risk failure, says BMA

(issued Tuesday 02 Nov 2004)

In his speech today at the eHealth conference*, Dr John Powell, Chairman of the BMA's IT committee, urged the NHS National Programme for Information Technology to engage properly with the medical profession or risk failure.

Dr Powell said:

"The programme should support healthcare workers in delivering a better service to their patients. We hope that improvements to IT systems will reduce the administrative burden on doctors so they can spend more time treating patients. This goal will only be realised if the national programme can provide systems that are at least as effective as those currently in use. Clinical staff must be consulted. There is no point investing billions of pounds in systems that do not have the confidence of users.”

He added:

"The national programme must learn the lessons of other high profile public sector IT projects such as the passport office fiasco of 1999. Large-scale public IT projects do not have a good track record in the UK and so it is paramount that the NHS learns the lessons of history and engages with the frontline staff who will be using the new systems. So far the level of engagement and consultation with the medical profession has been wholly inadequate."

Ends

Notes to editors:

*The eHealth conference is an Informa event, organised by IBC Global Conferences. The conference will look at transforming healthcare access and delivery.

It will be held on Tuesday 2nd November 2004 at the Radisson SAS Portman, London.

The NHS National program for IT aims to provide better information for health and patient care, where and when it's needed across England.