Government refuses independent review of NPfIT

The government has refused to hold an independent review of the National Programme for IT in their response to the Public Accounts Committee report on NHS IT.

According to a report in Computerworld UK, the news is revealed in a set of Treasury minutes, where the government have promised to publish a full annual statement of the costs and benefits of NPfIT later this year, which was one of the recommendations of the report, but ignored calls for an independent review.

The announcement came out beneath the radar ahead of the summer recess of the Commons.

EHI has been unable to obtain a copy of the response despite contacting the Treasury, Cabinet Office and Department of Health. A DH spokesperson however confirmed that the story was correct, and that a review of the programme had been ruled out with publication of annual statement promised instead.

According to the Computerworld UK report the Treasury response says “There are no grounds for an independent review of the business case at this stage…The intention is to include details of both the financial and non-financial benefits within the annual statement of benefits realised.”

Instead of an independent review, the government says that the Additional Supply Capability and Capacity [ASCC] scheme will help to provide contingency in the programme.

“Work is underway with the NHS to determine its priorities. The results will be provided to the local service providers and will be adjusted as required…It is better to target reviews at individual problems.

“The intention [of ASCC] is to award a series of framework contracts to selected suppliers who can then compete for subsequent business if the need arises… these would be complementary to the existing suite of programme contracts and provide contingency.”

The response has not yet been uploaded on the Public Accounts Committee website and the DH press office was unable to give EHI a date as to when it would be available to the public as Parliament is on recess until September.

The PAC report, published in April provided a damning critique of the success of the programme to date and questioned the basic business case behind and contracts awarded for England’s £12.4bn NHS National Programme for IT.

The PAC report called on the DH to commission and publish an independent review of the business case for the programme "in light of the progress and experience to date".

A report by the Commons Health Select Committee into the electronic patient record is due in September.

Links

PAC says NPfIT suppliers are ‘struggling to deliver’