The Tony Collins Blog

Did officials exaggerate death of the NPfIT?

Tony Collins — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 05:00:00 GMT

In 2011 the Department of Health made a major announcement that implied the NHS IT programme, the NPfIT, was dead when it wasn’t. The DH's press release announced an "acceleration of the dismantling of the National Programme for IT, following the...

HMRC's IT spend reached a record in 2011/12

Tony Collins — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:00:00 GMT

In March this year the Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude announced that his officials and Capgemini have agreed savings of more than £200m on the "Aspire" contract with HM Revenue and Customs. English: Francis Maude MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office...

IBM in dispute with South West One partners

Tony Collins — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:51:00 GMT

IBM has revealed that it is in dispute with three public authorities that comprise its joint venture South West One. The partners in South West One are IBM, Somerset County Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council and Avon and Somerset Police...

Will CSC negotiate a new NPfIT deal?

Tony Collins — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 11:54:05 GMT

CSC has told investors that its discussions with the UK government on an interim agreement for deploying Lorenzo to the NHS are “continuing positively”.CSC says that an agreement could commit a certain number of NHS trusts to take Lorenzo. Some...

Should this Trust be planning an IT switch to Cerner now?

Tony Collins — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 10:59:00 GMT

NHS executives at PCTs in London are asking how it was possible for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust to lose track of hundreds of patients who were referred for urgent appointments with specialists to discuss possible cancer. The Department of Health...

US hospital takes legal action against Cerner - why it matters to the NHS

Tony Collins — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 04:30:00 GMT

Joel Schectman, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, has researched the case of a small hospital in Kansas that is blaming Cerner for the...

Why is DH paying to keep Healthspace project alive?

Tony Collins — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:02:00 GMT

HealthSpace, a Department of Health system for patients to keep information about their health, is to close “from” March 2013.There is evidence that the system has been failing for years, at least since a report commissioned by the Department of Health...

Why is DH paying to keep Healthspace project alive?

Tony Collins — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:02:00 GMT

Ian Watmore's departure - a personal view

Tony Collins — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:43:55 GMT

Ian Watmore, who leaves the civil service next month, has his critics, David Moss among them. For me Watmore's time in the civil service has been marked by openness, honesty and a lack of ego. Many times he has been before Parliamentary...

Hospital staff report "clinical incidents" after Cerner NPfIT go-live

Tony Collins — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:32:00 GMT

North Bristol NHS Trust has reported 16 clinical incidents which it says are related to the implementation of a Cerner Millennium system in December 2011.The disclosure under the FOI Act suggests that the Cerner go-live under the NHS IT scheme...

Lessons from IT-related project failures - Logica's CE

Tony Collins — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:37:53 GMT

Evan Davis and three business leaders have discussed on BBC R4's The Bottom Line the failure of IT-related projects, particularly the NHS IT scheme NPfIT.The BBC programme was entitled "Cock-ups and Conspiracies" and had as one of the guests Andy...

CSC to cut £1bn from its NHS contracts? Not yet ...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:09:00 GMT

The Times reports that CSC is to cut at least £1bn from its NHS IT contracts. E-Health Insider reports that the Department of Health has secured savings of £1bn from CSC. But nothing is certain yet.CSC announced in a filing...

Whitehall asks IT company about "tea at The Ritz" offer to GPs

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:34:19 GMT

The Department of Health has asked TPP, a supplier to the Department of Health and the NHS, about its offer of “tea at The Ritz” or two tickets to a West End show to GP leaders in return for helping...

DWP justifies £316m HP contract in era of small deals

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:03:05 GMT

Some within the industry say that big outsourcing deals have all but dried up and that large suppliers are worried. Nevertheless there is a refuge for some of the biggest IT suppliers at the Department for Work and Pensions which seems...

Intellect and DH have a joint plan - but for what?

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:54:27 GMT

It is good that the Department of Health’s Informatics Directorate and Intellect are working together but it is unclear what the joint teams talk about apart from the weather. The two sides have drawn up an unimpressive document “A joint plan...

NHS IT scheme still soaking up billions says The Times

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:15:00 GMT

A headline at the top of front page of The Times today says:Exclusive - NHS computer fiasco still costing billionsThe Times continues with three inside pages (6-8) on how CSC is banking on getting £2bn for its failed system, why...

Does hospital IT need airline-style certification?

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:27:00 GMT

Earlier this month the pilots of a Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” carrying 249 passengers aborted a landing at Okayama airport in Japan when the wheels failed to deploy automatically. The pilots circled and deployed the landing gear manually.About a year ago...

Free Microsoft upgrade when you threaten open source?

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Qamar Yunus, assistant director in the Cabinet Office ICT policy team, says that Microsoft provided its software for free when a government department decided to pilot open source LibreOffice as an alternative to upgrading its Microsoft software.Yunus was making the...

Friends lament departure of Deputy Govt CIO

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 09:22:00 GMT

Friends of Bill McCluggage, the departing Deputy government CIO, have praised his work as an advocate for change, and his courage in telling it like it is, despite the Cabinet Office's restrictive communications policy. He is said by friends to have...

Is Universal Credit deliverable? Internal report now published

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:25:09 GMT

The Department for Work and Pensions refused my request under the Freedom of Information Act for the Universal Credit Starting Gate review report to be published. It also turned down my appeal saying that publication was not in the public interest.Separately MP...

Surge in tenders for non-NPfIT systems from NHS trusts

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:05:53 GMT

NHS Trusts are tendering for IT systems on a scale not known in recent years - outside of the NPfIT, I’m told. It appears that trusts wish to use the freedom given by the Department of Health to buy what...

Four lessons from an IT success

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:20:00 GMT

Below is the story of why IM& T works so well at Trafford General Hospital in Manchester. These are four of the lessons: - Be in control of your IT suppliers. Too often in the public sector it’s the other way...

Met Office has IBM executive as IT head

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:24:00 GMT

The Met Office gained ministerial approval to appoint an IBM employee for a year as secondee CIO, until the end of October 2011, according to information released under the FOI Act. It appears that the salary of the IBM executive David Young...

Supplier of software that holds 10 million patient records in difficulty?

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:43:00 GMT

Dublin-based healthcare software firm IMS Maxims has been given court protection from its creditors while it restructures to try and secure its finances, according to market analyst Techmarketview.The High Court in Dublin appointed an interim examiner to the group last...

Health Secretary on the future of NHS IT

Tony Collins — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:53:00 GMT

An article in The Observer yesterday was a reminder that the Cabinet Office, in seeking to take an independent look at CSC's £3bn worth of NPfIT contracts, has its work cut out.The Cabinet Office's Major Projects Authority has sent its...