NHS IT Cuts To Be Around Five Percent – Patient Control Over Health Records Reiterated

We hear the same thing here in the US, patient control, but in the US before that happens we need to “wake up” a few million folks around here and tell them they can do this and get involved. I run across a lot of people and when this topic comes up, do you think anyone has much of an interest- heck no. I have been there thousands of times, there’s no interest. The no interest issue comes from a no education issue, so if consumers don’t know what you are talking about, how can you create interest.

One Hell of a Training Program Needed – The Bottom Line to Success ...

The NHS cuts are I’m guessing in line with what has occurred here in the US too with Health IT. Not too long ago Kaiser laid of a bunch of their IT staff, so it’s not something new. If you have not looked around you, many of the jobs done by people are being replaced by technology too, so the problem with the economy is due to the fact that it may not need all of us. Now I don’t like that idea any better than anyone else, but it is what it is and we are on rocket speed today with this happening all over. In essence, the big panic in the UK may not be that at all, but one item that is restated here is the fact that the patient needs to be in control, so the UK may have a need for a massive training effort like we do in the US. BD

Following speculation of exactly how much of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) will be cut, the Health Secretary has revealed savings will total just 5 per cent.
On 6 November Chancellor Alistair Darling said that non-essential parts of the NPfIT would be cut to save money in the short term. Opposition parties and commentators took this to mean substantial cuts to the program to help the government reduce its Budget deficit.
Yet in a debate in the House of Commons, Health Secretary Andy Burnham said his department would be aiming to achieve a reduction of £600m in the lifetime costs of the program.
With the current budget standing at £12.4bn this equates to just 5 per cent of the program's costs.

In response, the shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Everyone told them that big IT projects had to be user led, but that one was not. We told them that the system should be decentralized, with local procurement and patient control over health records, but they did not listen. Now the Chancellor of the Exchequer says it has to stop.
"The Secretary of State is clearly not in charge. The government got it wrong and the Treasury is now belatedly putting a stop to the continuing disaster."

NHS IT cuts to total just 5 per cent - Public Service