In a survey carried out by website
Doctors.net.uk for The Times newspaper, 86% of the doctors surveyed
said that they thought the scheme should not be abandoned.
Doctors were asked whether they were
optimistic that the Connecting for Health IT system would change
the way the NHS is run and 91% said yes. When asked if they were
sceptical that it will make a positive change, 66% said they were
not sceptical.
The programme has been controversial because
it has suffered long delays and huge cost over-runs. It has been
criticised by government auditors, MPs and attacked by doctors,
managers and privacy activists.
The National Audit Office produced a report
last year that listed the delays, glitches and cost over-runs and
said that the programme had lost the confidence of NHS staff.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee
investigated the scheme last summer, and was told that hasty early
decisions and a procurement process running "at breakneck speed",
which has in the long run caused lengthy delays. Elements of the
project are now running years behind, the hearings were told.
The new survey, though, shows that doctors may
be more supportive of the system than was previously thought. Only
14% of them think that it should be abandoned, while 76% do not
agree that it has been a frustrating project.
In a clear signal to the Department of Health
about how NHS money should be allocated, though, the doctors want
Government to put a stop to the seemingly endless approval for cost
over-runs. Fully 91% of the doctors said they did not agree that
more investment should be made in the system to ensure its
success.
A similar survey carried out late last year
found that NHS staff felt alienated by the programme, and that the
body running it did not listen to or communicate with them. This
survey's results appear to indicate either that that feeling is not
very widespread amongst doctors, or that their opinions have
changed in the past two months.
The scheme has also been involved with
controversy over the health records at its heart. OUT-LAW recently
revealed that the Department of Health had refused a large number
of requests from patients that their details not be uploaded, and
that the British Medical Association has threatened to ask doctors
to boycott the system. Such a boycott would likely cripple the £12
billion project.
