NHS to Introduce Own Gateway Reviews

The Department of Health is to introduce its own Gateway Review process to examine major NHS IT and building projects, modelled on the Gateway Review mechanism developed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

E-Health Insider understands that the new arrangement, expected to be announced at Public Sector Expo this week, is a compromise, under which the DH will run its own Gateway reviews but the OGC will supply independent reviewers to actually undertake the reviews.

“The plan is that an NHS Gateway team will be formed. The members of the review teams will be supplied by OGC,” an OGC spokesperson told EHI.

In effect this new arrangement is likely to mean that the DH will identify which high risk projects will be reviewed and how it acts on the recommendations of the independent review team. The OGC spokesperson described the arrangement as “a compromise that has been reached”. In all other areas of central and civil government gateway reviews are mandatory – only health and defence have been exempt.

NHS projects to be covered by the new arrangements will potentially include the full range of NHS IT and construction projects, where the department identifies them as being of high risk. “These may be down to the individual trust-level,” stressed the OGC spokesperson.

The OGC’s six-stage Gateway Review process was set up to examine major central and civil government procurements, including IT projects, at critical stages to provide assurance that they can progress successfully to the next stage. The objective is to ensure that major projects succeed and are delivered cost effectively.

An OGC spokesperson confirmed that the small number of Gateway Reviews relating to the National Programme for IT in the NHS (NPfIT) will be continued through to gate six completion. “The small number of projects we were invited to do a review of will be seen through to completion,” said the spokesperson.

NPfIT projects currently being reviewed are understood to include: Integrated Care Records Services (ICRS), the ‘N3’ replacement for NHSnet and security and encryption services.

Although Gateway Reviews are carried out in confidence, it was widely rumoured that the early stage reviews of ICRS carried out last year had proved contentious, with a large number of issues identified.

In October 2002 health minister Hazel Blears said that all the Gateway reviews for the separate components of the national programme would be completed by Spring 2003.