Conservatives seek "vision" for NHS IT policy

The British Computer Society will conduct an independent review of NHS IT policy

Janie Davies, Computing 21 Aug 2008

The Conservative Party will us the findings of a review into NHS IT policy to help establish its future policy framework, according to the Shadow Minister for Health.

The review, commissioned by the Conservatives, will be led by Glyn Hayes, past chairman and current member of the British Compter Society’s Health Informatics Forum strategic panel.

It aims to establish how IT can meet public, clinical and management needs, advising the current government and providing policy for consideration by an incoming Conservative government.

Lack of transparency around IT in the health service will present a challenge according to Stephen O’Brien MP.

“The review will only be as good as the information it is able to gather - particularly tough given the secretive nature of much of the NHS IT programme,” he said.

“I would strongly encourage all those who feel they have something to contribute to read and respond to the questions at www.healthitpolicyreview.info" .

"Health informatics have the potential to be of great benefit for patients, but Labour's centralised approach has led to an expensive, cumbersome and delayed programme. The review will be key to gathering the information on which to base our policy framework".

Glyn Hayes said: "It's not about looking at what's gone wrong, or to criticise, it's looking forward at a view for the future and what we need to have in five years time," he said.

"The Conservatives wanted evidence-based policy and an independent review to produce a vision that could feed into their decision-making policy. We will be using contributed evidence from around the world."

The BCS stressed that it is apolitical, and agreed to lead the review only after being assured that it was independent.

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