The NHS IT budget - careful with those billions

Future suppliers of IT to the UK's National Health Service (NHS) have been given a clear message - perform, or else.

The message comes from Richard Granger, the director general of IT at the giant organisation and the man who, following his appointment in the summer, is thought to be the nation's highest paid civil servant.

Speaking to IT suppliers in London today, Granger said there will be a framework to ensure those who do well in annual performance assessments will get work from those who fail to meet standards.

He laid out four key facets of the 'Delivering 21st Century IT support across the NHS' programme:

- delivering critical national services - including Electronic Bookings, Prescriptions Service and Integrated Care Records

- managing improved procurement and developing IT industry relations and partnerships to increase IT capacity for the NHS

- defining national data and systems standards and specifications

- developing the NHS IT infrastructure, including encryption and system security

Despite the hard line approach, most well-known vendors need not fear the NHS or public sector in general is about to cut its spending. A new report from analysts at IDC states "budget constraints are not expected to cause major IT spending decreases beyond the short term" in Western European countries.

With billions to spend, the public sector will be a key market for many IT companies, though IDC points out the growth is only strong compared to most other industries because non-commercial services are catching up.

Local government and education are two areas exhibiting the most optimism about using IT to modernise.