Weakness of National Programme for Information Technology in the NHS

Today, the quality of health care services is crucial for the overall effectiveness of the modern NHS. In actuality, the NHS can reach the high quality of health care services only on the condition of the successful implementation of the most advanced technologies and findings in the field of medicine. In this respect, the wide implementation of information technologies can also contribute to the consistent improvement of the quality of health care services nationwide. In fact, the rapid development of information technologies in recent years has opened larger opportunities for health care services because new information technologies can improve consistently the communication between patients and health care professionals, they can help to deliver patients faster and diagnose them more accurately than health care professionals can do today. However, the major problem of the modern NHS is the imperfectness and weakness of the National Programme for Information Technology, which deprives the NHS of many benefits of modern information technologies.

Initially, the costs of the National Programme for Information Technology were supposed to be 2.3 bn pounds in here years, but its actual costs have exceeded 12 bn pounds by 2006. In actuality, the NHS fails to use the full advantage of modern information technologies. In this respect, the weakness of the National Programme for Information Technology plays a crucial role because the National Programme does not encourage the introduction of information technologies in the NHS (Andrew 2003, 148). What is meant here is the fact that the National Programme for Information Technology should stimulate health care professionals and health care institutions to introduce information technologies en masse. In addition, the National Programme for Information Technology should facilitate the introduction of information technologies within the NHS. Instead, the existing National Program for Information Technology meets neither of the aforementioned goals that proves the weakness of the programme.

In addition, the overregulation of the NHS raises unsurpassable barriers on the way of introduction of information technologies in the NHS. In fact, the NHS and health care professionals need to waste a lot of time on adaptation of new information technologies to existing norms and standards which regulate the work of health care professionals and the NHS at large (Lucas and Baroudi 2002 p.49). As a result, the NHS wastes time and information technologies it implements are out of date, while more advanced information technologies that emerge need more time for adaptation to NHS’ norms and standards.

In such a situation, the consistent, qualitative improvement of the National Programme for Information Technology is needed. In fact, the National Programme for Information Technology should meet the requirements and standards of the NHS. In addition, the National Programme for Information Technology should stimulate the development of new information technologies to be implemented in the NHS specifically (Fuchs and Emanuel 2005 p.1399). In other words, the development of new information technologies for needs of the NHS should be one of the major priorities of the National Programme for Information Technology. As a result, the National Programme for Information Technology will stimulate the development and introduction of new information technologies for the NHS specifically.

Finally, the procedures of the introduction of new information technologies in the NHS should be simplified to save time and help the NHS to introduce the most advanced and recent information technologies.

In such a way, the major weaknesses of the National Programme for Information Technology are as follows:

  • Time for adaptation ”“ a lot of time is  wasted
  • Professionals training ”“ lack of training and support
  • Overregulation – existing NHS’ standards and regulations prevent introduction of new IT
  • Bureaucratic barriers make new IT difficult to introduce

Thus, in conclusion, it is necessary to stress the importance of the wide introduction of information technologies in the NHS. The weakness of the National Programme for Information Technology prevents the NHS from the introduction of new information technologies. This weakness should be eliminated to improve the quality of health care services.



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