Writing in JAMA, the director general of NHS IT Richard Granger and senior collegues, said good progress had been made in designing and procuring a comprehensive IT service to support the NHS in England, but ‘much remains to be done’.
They concluded: ‘Perhaps the greatest challenge to successful implementation to successful implementation to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare is the human processes that need to change to accommodate the IT revolution. Otherwise, manual processes will simply be replaced with digital ones.’
GPs said the problems with the programme were due to the failure of its directors to consult clinicians, work with existing IT systems, and develop appropriate, effective software.
JAMA. 2006;296:2255-2258.
