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Lib Dems urge immediate halt to NPfIT

Kable

Published: 17 Sep 2008 10:54 BST

The Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary Norman Lamb has called for an immediate end to further spending on the NHS National Programme for IT.

He also pledged an independent inquiry into the £12.4bn project to computerise the health service, which he said had been "a shambles from the start".

"We believe the gains possible from the use of IT would more likely be realised if the programme were decentralised and control given to local organisations who could instead work on improving connectivity between health and social care," Lamb said in a statement to GC News.

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His comments followed a speech yesterday at the Liberal Democrats' annual conference in Bournemouth, in which he said the party would create local health boards with a legal duty to deliver value for money in securing health care. Central imposition of private-sector providers would be rejected.

"And it's goodbye to the National IT programme, which has and will waste billions of pounds," Lamb told the conference. "Besides — who would trust this government with a national database of our medical records?"

In keynote speeches, party leader Nick Clegg and his treasury spokesperson, Vince Cable, both attacked the government's record on IT programmes. Both promised to an end to the National Identity Scheme; Clegg claimed a "computerised bureaucracy" had replaced face-to-face contract; and Cable said the party would also stop "the gravy train of management consultancy in government".