NAO relaunches NHS IT probe

News Article - 05 September 2006
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The National Audit Office (NAO) has announced another review into the NHS's delayed IT upgrade, just months after concluding a previous investigation.

The previous report, completed in June, was relatively uncritical of the scheme, saying that it faced a challenging future but recognising the "substantial progress" made.

NAO officials have refused to be drawn on the reasons behind their decision to re-open the investigation into the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

"When we published the report we said we may revisit it and that is what we are doing," a spokesperson told the BBC.

GPs, the eventual end users of the NPfIT, have claimed that the system represents a threat to patient confidentiality and that they were not consulted on the system.

The project is planned to eventually offer centralised medical records for 50 million NHS patients, online booking and prescriptions services and high-speed links between NHS bodies.

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