More delays likely in PAS rollout, says Granger

A combination of the NHS’s financial troubles and problems with software, means that the installation of new patient administration systems in hospitals is likely to be further delayed, Connecting for Health chief executive, Richard Granger says in an interview.

He admits that London’s local service provider, BT, is having difficulties finding any hospital in the capital willing to put in a new patient administration system (PAS).

Speaking to the Financial Times, Granger said: “It is not a great time to ask people to take new computer systems. Money is tight, targets are tight, these systems are disruptive and there is not an enormous benefit to trusts at the moment.”

He said greater focus would now put on other projects including digital imaging systems, electronic prescribing and providing software to help the NHS’s new payment system work.

At the end of October, an investigation by E-Health Insider found that only four of the 22 systems promised to the Commons Public Accounts Committee had been implemented.

Shortly afterwards, CfH said new PAS systems would implemented in 120 trusts by April 2007 .

Granger gave a frank account of the problems with the software available to trusts from iSoft and Cerner under the National Programme for IT.

He told the newspaper that Cerner’s software provided clinical benefits but did not easily provide reports on patients’ appointments in a format preferred by hospitals that enables them to claim money from primary care trusts. iSoft’s product fulfilled that function but, as yet, offered few clinical gains.

But Granger says these problems are “transitory” until new versions of the software become available.

He acknowledged the pending review of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) by the Department of Health chief executive David Nicholson, as exclusively reported by EHI earlier this month.

“We are not far into a 10-year programme and we have achieved an enormous amount…People are searching for an easy answer, saying let trusts do more or punish the suppliers more and it will be easier. I don’t think it is going to get easier. It will continue to be a difficult task.”

Granger also acknowledged that the changes Nicholson is planning, which place greater emphasis on local ownership, would lead to CfH getting smaller in size.

“The job is going to take longer, so the team needs to be made smaller,” he said.