Government told to improve NHS IT strategy

The government must develop an effective IT strategy for the health service.

This is according to a report released this week by the Nuffield Trust and The Judge Institute of Management Studies which called for effective IT systems to be installed in all sectors of the health service.

John Wyn Owen, secretary of the Nuffield Trust, admitted that lack of finance, the complex nature of healthcare and inexperience in implementing IT systems all meant that healthcare lagged behind in technology.

However, he stressed that since the last Department of Health policy report in 1998, the government has allocated £1bn to a long-term healthcare IT strategy. NHS Direct, which allows patients online access to healthcare, and a national online library have already been established.

Several tele-medicine projects, which host real-time interaction between patients and specialists, are operating in several parts of the country.

Suggestions for future improvements include smart cards, and personal health monitors that would contain a patients individual medical data.