The National Health Service is wasting time and money by trying to develop the NHSnet computer network with obsolete technology and inadequate security.
That is the conclusion of the IMPACT (In Medical Practice, Action to Co-ordinate Technology) group of primary care practitioners following its second conference this year. The group has already successfully prompted the dropping of a December 31, 1999, deadline for the introduction of the network.
The group is now concentrating on persuading the NHS to drop its insistence that obsolete X.400 messaging technology should be used for the network.
"The NHS is holding on to X.400 for no good reason that anyone can see," the group's co-ordinator (Mr Barry James) told The Journal on October 26. "It is more expensive, more difficult and has a smaller supplier base."
Instead, IMPACT says that the standard internet smtp (simple mail transfer protocol) system should be used.
The group is also insistent that security should be provided by encrypting messages where necessary, rather than by trying to create a closed system that prevents unauthorised access.
A participant in the group's latest conference on October 22 commented: "It is abundantly clear that the NHSnet's current ring-fence security model is totally inadequate and inappropriate. Unless encryption is adopted, it can only be a matter of time until there is a security breach which could put the NHS back several years."
Information on IMPACT can be found at its www.nhsimpact.net website.