The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7407 p11
1 July 2006

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· NHS
· POM-to-P switches
· NHS IT
· Statutory Committee (2)
· Onlooker (2)

Letters to the Editor

NHS IT

This is getting ridiculous

From Mr H. A. Lockie, MRPharmS

The health minister, Lord Warner, is quoted as saying that the central data depository IT project is now “at least” two years behind schedule and the cost has increased from £6.2bn to closer to £20bn (PJ, 3 June, p648). He should be so lucky. A reliable IT industry rule of thumb is that any project that goes more than 100 per cent over budget will never be completed.

£20bn is just £3bn more than the sum Warren Buffett has just given to the Gates Foundation (The Times, 27 June), and which will save “millions of lives”. One wonders how many millions of lives will be saved in Britain by the IT project. And how many lives could have been saved by the many new hospitals that could be built around Britain for such a sum, or for the additional £20bn that is likely to be spent before the plug is pulled or victory declared.

Being in health IT myself, I am the last person to be against IT … but this is getting ridiculous. Is the minister surrounded by people telling him only what he wants to hear?

Harvey Lockie
Auckland, New Zealand

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