Combative Granger defends speed of IT reform

Speaking yesterday at the Government Computing Exhibition and Conference 2004, Earls Court, Granger emphasised the benefits to healthcare that the national programme might bring: “The NPSA records 12,000 preventable fatal events a year in the UK. That’s a reason for expediency if anyone wanted one."

Granger also argued that overly long consultation and testing periods cause new technology to become obsolete: “We have to get to a point where we can deliver software in weeks, not years."

Granger also responded to comments about lack of consultation with health professionals and those who will use the service, saying: "Last year was characterised by clinicians believing it wasn’t going to happen.

“Now there’s a dawning realisation that we are deadly serious… people are now saying they want to be involved where a year ago they were uninterested."

Granger went through the inefficiencies of the current paper-based system, and why they needed to be updated straight away. "We are modernising that nervous moment when you see the GP and she refers you to a consultant.

“Right now, you rely on a piece of 1840s infrastructure: you get the post office to deliver the appointment care. We are modernising that by putting electronic booking systems in place."

Turning to the subject of medical records, he said that they tended “to be locked into buildings associated with where we live, rather than where we work. The manner in which these records move is dependent on the postal system. They’re not encrypted, not secure, not instant… the average delay is about six weeks."

Granger took on those against the electronic care records system, saying that at least it would be an improvement on the current state of affairs: "Some people are worried about electronic records. They are worried about security and confidentiality, and the relationship between them and the doctor.

“I ask you to think about how things happen at the moment, and it is quite an improvement… how things happen at the moment is quite interesting. Most information is not transferred in a secure manner, but on trollies, and records at the end of beds."

Granger also ridiculed paper-based care records and their integration into legacy systems, saying they were “very compatible with VDUs, because you can stick Post-It notes on them."

The NHS IT director additionally highlighted that care records would give extra professional power to nurses, who will be able to update and annotate records, and would involve patients more in their care: “We are a nation of people who are more interested in service records for our vehicles than our health records. This is going to change."

Concluding, he said: “Our vision is a digital healthcare service that is fit for the future."