Health secretary says he has been contacted by 22 trusts struggling to cope with growing burden of private finance contracts The rising costs of paying for hospitals under private finance initiative schemes is bringing NHS trusts to the “brink of financial collapse” and putting patient care at risk, the health secretary has warned. Andrew Lansley said he had been contacted by 22 trusts that are struggling to cope with the growing burden of the PFI contracts, a policy of the former Labour government under which private capital is used to build hospitals and the NHS is left with an annual fee or “mortgage”. Between them, the trusts run more than 60 hospitals. Speaking on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme , Lansley said: “We’re not going to let hospitals collapse financially. “But if we were simply to carry on as the Labour party did in government, we would be seeing hundreds of millions of pounds every year being taken from what could provide improving services for patients in order to pay for PFI projects that roll forward for decades.” He added that patient care could be jeopardised in the areas covered by the 22 trusts, saying: “We’re looking at a risk to services in their areas.” Buckinghamshire, Oxford Radcliffe, North Bristol and Portsmouth are understood to be among the trusts in difficulty. The Department of Health has said there are £12.6bn of PFI contracts in the NHS, with some trusts paying off the scheme until 2050. Annual bills are forecast to rise by 75% to more than £2.5bn in the next 18 years after the recession took its toll on the repayments. In comments to the Telegraph , Lansley said: “Like the economy, Labour has brought some parts of the NHS to the brink of financial collapse. Tough solutions may be needed for these problems, but we’ll help the NHS overcome them.” The Department of Health has said the government is making an independent assessment of PFI schemes. Proposals designed to ease the burden on struggling trusts could include the renegotiation of PFI contracts. David Stout, the deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation , which represents health service commissioners and providers, said that there had been “few realistic alternatives” to PFI projects in the NHS at the time of their introduction under Labour. But he warned that the economic climate had changed and that, as PFI payments ate further into resources, there was “a real danger that we will be paying for hospitals that are not being fully used”. “PFI contracts are long term deals lasting up to 25 years but, in order to respond to the current unprecedented financial challenge, we will need to close some services or parts of hospitals in order to invest in more efficient services elsewhere that are better for patients,” Stout said. “With resources locked into PFI contracts, we will find it harder to make these vital changes.” John Appleby, the chief economist on health policy for charity the King’s Fund , told the BBC he was not persuaded by the argument that PFI had brought NHS trusts to the verge of collapse. “The reason that individual hospitals get into financial difficulties are often complex, and it’s not usually one single reason,” he said. “I have to say that, if PFI is seen to be the key problem, it doesn’t auger that well for the future when … the plan is under the new government’s reforms [that] the NHS will be doing deals with the private sector. “[These deals are] not just to build hospitals but to supply health care services, a much more complicated system and a much more complicated exercise.” While admitting that PFI had proved more expensive, Appleby added that some hospitals with the schemes had remained “perfectly healthy financially”. But Lansley insisted the government needed to act in order to tackle “Labour’s legacy of poor value for money”, which he said included the £12.7bn national programme for IT, which is being scrapped after years of delays. He said: “The truth is that we have inherited in the NHS … an enormous legacy of debt – not just PFI debt, but often hospitals that are carrying substantial debts.” Private finance initiative Health policy Andrew Lansley Liberal-Conservative coalition Labour NHS Health Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk
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At least 16 dead or missing and transport system in chaos as floods and landslides strike central Japan Typhoon Roke has moved north across Japan, leaving at least 16 people dead or missing. Concerns had been raised that the powerful typhoon could threaten safety at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was sent into meltdown by an earthquake and tsunami on 11 March, but officials said the plant was unaffected. Hiroki Kawamata, a spokesman for the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said there had been no further leaks of radioactive water or material into the environment. “We are seeing no problems so far,” he said. The typhoon had reached the country’s northern island of Hokkaido by Thursday morning after weakening overnight, but there were no immediate reports of damage. The storm was generating winds of up to 78mph. It reached the city of Hamamatsu, about 125 miles (200km) west of Tokyo, on Wednesday before cutting a path to the north-east and through Tokyo. Up to 42cm of rain fell in some areas, triggering landslides and flooding. Police and local media reported 16 people dead or missing, most swept away by rivers swollen by rains in southern and central regions. One person died in a landslide in the northern Iwate prefecture, and two people were swept away in Sendai in the north-east. Hundreds of tsunami survivors in government shelters in the Miyagi prefecture town of Onagawa were forced to evacuate because of flooding risks. Strong winds brought down power lines in many areas and officials said more than 200,000 households in central Japan were without electricity on Wednesday. In Tokyo, rush hour trains were suspended and thousands of commuters were stuck at stations across the city. Long queues formed for buses and taxis. “The hotels in the vicinity are all booked up so I’m waiting for the bullet train to restart,” Hiromu Harada, a 60-year-old businessman, said at Tokyo station. The Kyodo news agency reported that 5,000 people had stayed inside Shinkansen bullet trains at Tokyo and Shizuoka stations overnight. The storm had triggered landslides in parts of Miyagi prefecture that had been affected by the March earthquake and tsunami. The local government requested help from the army, and dozens of schools were closed. An earthquake struck on Wednesday just south of Fukushima, in Ibaraki prefecture. Officials said it posed no danger to the Fukushima Daiichi plant and that it did not cause damage or injuries. Heavy rains sparked floods and caused road damage in Nagoya and other cities, the Aichi prefectural government said. More than 200 domestic flights were cancelled. Japan Natural disasters and extreme weather Flooding guardian.co.uk
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US Federal Reserve strategy to calm financial markets causes investor fright as markets from London to Asia plunge The US Federal Reserve’s Operation Twist failed to bring calm to financial markets, which tumbled on Thursday as investors took fright at the US central bank’s gloomy warning about the economic outlook. The FTSE 100 index in London plunged 174 points in early trading, a 3.3% drop, with not a single riser in sight. In Asia, markets also suffered heavy losses, with the Nikkei closing down 2.1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbling 4.3% and Jakarta’s stock market losing over 7%. Brent crude oil lost nearly $2 to $108.59 a barrel. The sell-off came after the Fed unveiled a new $400bn bond-buying plan on Wednesday to ward off a double-dip recession, as it emerged that the Bank of England was also getting ready to pump more money into the British economy. The Fed’s open markets committee said the economic outlook had deteriorated sharply, noting there were “significant downside risks” to its economic forecasts and indicating that a full recovery was years away. “Recent indicators point to continuing weakness in overall labour market conditions, and the unemployment rate remains elevated.” This drove the Dow Jones down 2.5% on Wednesday while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 3%. Ben Potter of IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia, said he expected “a session of heavy selling as the world reacts to the Fed’s downbeat outlook for the US economy”. News that Chinese factory output had shrunk for a third month in September as flagging overseas demand put the brakes on new orders also weighed on markets. “It is another blow after the Fed’s language about downside risks on the economy really hurt sentiment,” David Thurtell of Citigroup in Singapore told Reuters. Double twist “Operation Twist”, named after a similar measure launched in the 1960s under President Kennedy, will see the Fed buying $400bn (£258bn) of long-term Treasury bonds by June 2012 and selling shorter-term debts. The measure is aimed at driving down long-term interest rates across the economy, in an attempt to reduce the cost of borrowing for indebted homeowners and struggling firms. In another effort to help the ailing US housing market , the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, said as the mortgage-backed securities it owns matured, it would reinvest the proceeds in buying new mortgage bonds. Economists called the measures a “double twist”. Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities, said: “Twist and doubt? You have to hand it to the Fed. They have gone all retro on us and persuaded the market to call their latest attempt at intervention ‘Operation Twist’ rather than ‘QE 3′. The latter might imply that the first two attempts didn’t quite work out as hoped so far better to change the name …” He added: “The basic idea is of course to stimulate economic growth by persuading investors into risk assets … the one thing that is clear is that Mr Bernanke is prepared to use all the weapons in his armoury in order to try and ensure that the US does not enter a long period of low growth, so Operation Twist may not be the last intervention unless it works. And of course the UK is about to follow suit.” Global economy Stock markets US economy Economics US economic growth and recession Interest rates US Interest rates Global recession Recession Quantitative easing FTSE Nikkei Dow Jones United States Japan China Australia Bank of England Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
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Detectives at Stepping Hill hospital are investigating deaths of three patients who were given saline contaminated with insulin Police investigating the contamination of saline at Stepping Hill Hospital believe four more people were poisoned. Following the release of nurse Rebecca Leighton, Greater Manchester police said they were looking at around 40 potential victims who may have been harmed by the contaminated solution. It is understood they now believe that seven within that pool were poisoned – including Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, and Alfred Derek Weaver, 83. Fifteen of those potential victims have been eliminated from the inquiry, while the cases of 20 others are still being assessed. Sources confirmed that a “Cracker”-style criminal profiler was brought in by police to help identify the mystery poisoner. The forensic clinical psychologist, who has assisted various police forces in several recent high-profile murder cases, was called in at the beginning of the major inquiry into who sabotaged saline at the Stockport hospital. He is not currently part of the investigation but initially aided detectives in drawing up the likely background of the saboteur. A police source said: “He was brought in at the early stages of the investigation and helped draw up a profile of the perpetrator. “He is currently not helping with our inquiries.” The source did not disclose how useful that information was or whether it played any role in the detention of Miss Leighton. Miss Leighton has spoken of her horror at being dubbed an “angel of death” and “killer nurse” by newspapers. She said she was “passionate” about her job and wanted to return to a “normal life” after charges that she tampered with saline solution with intent to endanger life were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) earlier this month. The 27-year-old spent more than six weeks in custody but was freed on 2 September after proceedings against her were discontinued due to insufficient evidence. Last week she was cleared to return to work by the Nursing and Midwifery Council – subject to conditions, despite hearing claims that she had admitted to the theft of opiate-based drugs. But she remains suspended on full pay by Stepping Hill while inquiries continue into allegations that she stole medication. A spokeswoman for Stepping Hill said: “The internal review of Rebecca’s case has begun and will proceed in the normal way. “These investigations can take some time to complete. We cannot be more definitive in terms of timings at this stage.” Detectives are continuing to look at the suspicious deaths of patients Arden, Lancaster and Weaver. All three were unlawfully administered insulin but it has not yet been established whether that was a significant contributing factor to their deaths, police say. The alarm was first raised by hospital staff on 12 July when a higher than normal number of patients were reported to have “unexplained” low blood sugar levels amid fears that saline solution had been contaminated with insulin. Heightened security measures remain in place at Stepping Hill and will continue for the foreseeable future. No one is allowed to administer intravenous drips alone and all keys to medicine cabinets have to be signed for. Manchester NHS Health Nursing guardian.co.uk
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Detectives at Stepping Hill hospital are investigating deaths of three patients who were given saline contaminated with insulin Police investigating the contamination of saline at Stepping Hill Hospital believe four more people were poisoned. Following the release of nurse Rebecca Leighton, Greater Manchester police said they were looking at around 40 potential victims who may have been harmed by the contaminated solution. It is understood they now believe that seven within that pool were poisoned – including Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, and Alfred Derek Weaver, 83. Fifteen of those potential victims have been eliminated from the inquiry, while the cases of 20 others are still being assessed. Sources confirmed that a “Cracker”-style criminal profiler was brought in by police to help identify the mystery poisoner. The forensic clinical psychologist, who has assisted various police forces in several recent high-profile murder cases, was called in at the beginning of the major inquiry into who sabotaged saline at the Stockport hospital. He is not currently part of the investigation but initially aided detectives in drawing up the likely background of the saboteur. A police source said: “He was brought in at the early stages of the investigation and helped draw up a profile of the perpetrator. “He is currently not helping with our inquiries.” The source did not disclose how useful that information was or whether it played any role in the detention of Miss Leighton. Miss Leighton has spoken of her horror at being dubbed an “angel of death” and “killer nurse” by newspapers. She said she was “passionate” about her job and wanted to return to a “normal life” after charges that she tampered with saline solution with intent to endanger life were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) earlier this month. The 27-year-old spent more than six weeks in custody but was freed on 2 September after proceedings against her were discontinued due to insufficient evidence. Last week she was cleared to return to work by the Nursing and Midwifery Council – subject to conditions, despite hearing claims that she had admitted to the theft of opiate-based drugs. But she remains suspended on full pay by Stepping Hill while inquiries continue into allegations that she stole medication. A spokeswoman for Stepping Hill said: “The internal review of Rebecca’s case has begun and will proceed in the normal way. “These investigations can take some time to complete. We cannot be more definitive in terms of timings at this stage.” Detectives are continuing to look at the suspicious deaths of patients Arden, Lancaster and Weaver. All three were unlawfully administered insulin but it has not yet been established whether that was a significant contributing factor to their deaths, police say. The alarm was first raised by hospital staff on 12 July when a higher than normal number of patients were reported to have “unexplained” low blood sugar levels amid fears that saline solution had been contaminated with insulin. Heightened security measures remain in place at Stepping Hill and will continue for the foreseeable future. No one is allowed to administer intravenous drips alone and all keys to medicine cabinets have to be signed for. Manchester NHS Health Nursing guardian.co.uk
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Ministry of Defence says it is in contact with lawyers of victims’ relatives and is preparing to make amends where required The British government is to pay compensation to families of those killed or wounded on Bloody Sunday, the Ministry of Defence announced on Thursday. More than a year after David Cameron apologised to the victims and described the 1972 Derry shootings as “unjustified and unjustifiable”, the Ministry of Defence has said it is in contact with the lawyers of victims’ relatives and is preparing to make amends where required. “We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly. For that, the government is deeply sorry,” said an MoD spokesman. “We are in contact with the families’ solicitors and where there is a legal liability to pay compensation we will do so.” Thirteen unarmed civilians died in the Bloody Sunday shootings, when paratroopers opened fire during a civil rights protest in the Bogside area of Derry in January 1972. A 14th man died of his wounds several months later. An initial inquiry absolved the soldiers and the government of much of the blame, and in 1974 the MoD made a series of mostly small payments without accepting any responsibility. But last year’s Saville inquiry , which was 12 years in the making, came to the unequivocal conclusion that the killings had been unjustified. “We found no instances where it appeared to us that soldiers either were or might have been justified in firing,” it said. “Despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers, we have concluded that none of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers. No one threw or threatened to throw a nail or petrol bomb at the soldiers on Bloody Sunday.” According to the BBC, the move to pay compensation comes after lawyers for most of the families wrote to the prime minister asking what steps he would take to “fully compensate” them for “the loss of their loved ones, the wounding of others, and the shameful allegations which besmirched their good name for many years.” It is not yet clear who exactly will be compensated, and by how much, as many of those directly affected by the shootings have since died, and it is not known whether more distant relatives will make claims. Bloody Sunday Northern Ireland Ministry of Defence Military Ireland Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ministry of Defence says it is in contact with lawyers of victims’ relatives and is preparing to make amends where required The British government is to pay compensation to families of those killed or wounded on Bloody Sunday, the Ministry of Defence announced on Thursday. More than a year after David Cameron apologised to the victims and described the 1972 Derry shootings as “unjustified and unjustifiable”, the Ministry of Defence has said it is in contact with the lawyers of victims’ relatives and is preparing to make amends where required. “We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly. For that, the government is deeply sorry,” said an MoD spokesman. “We are in contact with the families’ solicitors and where there is a legal liability to pay compensation we will do so.” Thirteen unarmed civilians died in the Bloody Sunday shootings, when paratroopers opened fire during a civil rights protest in the Bogside area of Derry in January 1972. A 14th man died of his wounds several months later. An initial inquiry absolved the soldiers and the government of much of the blame, and in 1974 the MoD made a series of mostly small payments without accepting any responsibility. But last year’s Saville inquiry , which was 12 years in the making, came to the unequivocal conclusion that the killings had been unjustified. “We found no instances where it appeared to us that soldiers either were or might have been justified in firing,” it said. “Despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers, we have concluded that none of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers. No one threw or threatened to throw a nail or petrol bomb at the soldiers on Bloody Sunday.” According to the BBC, the move to pay compensation comes after lawyers for most of the families wrote to the prime minister asking what steps he would take to “fully compensate” them for “the loss of their loved ones, the wounding of others, and the shameful allegations which besmirched their good name for many years.” It is not yet clear who exactly will be compensated, and by how much, as many of those directly affected by the shootings have since died, and it is not known whether more distant relatives will make claims. Bloody Sunday Northern Ireland Ministry of Defence Military Ireland Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk
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How to account for the failure of public outcry to stay Davis’s execution? In short, people in Georgia support the death penalty On Wednesday, Troy Davis became the 33rd person executed in the United States in 2011 (and there are nine remaining executions scheduled for this year that have not been stayed, as of publication time ). But with with the exception of Humberto Leal , nearly all those other men went to their deaths with little public outcry. Not so Davis, whose execution had been stayed twice previously and whose conviction even sent back to the state court for review by the US supreme court. But a state judge ruled the conviction valid, a third stay was denied and a state body in Georgia denied clemency this week – despite a vast outcry in the US and from abroad. Beyond all standard legal options, Davis’s supporters – including Amnesty International – began a public, viral campaign to encourage the local prosecutor and local judge to withdraw the execution order. Though Davis was convicted in a court of law, seven eyewitnesses have since recanted or contradicted their testimony , with some saying they were pressured by the police; jurors in the case say they wouldn’t vote to convict him if he had been tried today. But it was all for naught: it usually takes extraordinary circumstances and new evidence that decisively rules out the person convicted – as the 17 former death row inmates exonerated by DNA know too well – to convince almost anyone of a convicted criminal’s innocence. And sometimes, even then, prosecutors, judges and politicians still choose to find such evidence less than compelling. The US legal system offers defendants the presumption of innocence before conviction. Post-conviction, though, the legal presumption is that the 12 citizen jurors made the correct decision and that the defense lawyers and prosecutors did their jobs honestly and to the best of their abilities – a reasonable theory, but unable to account for the 273 people exonerated (some posthumously) thanks to the efforts of the Innocence Project . What justice campaigners and death penalty abolitionists don’t fully appreciate, perhaps, is the extent to which executions are a state matter, decided by state courts and judiciaries, with juries reflecting attitudes that pertain to that state. While 60 people sit on federal death row (and the federal government has only executed three people – all during the second Bush adminstration – since the supreme court decided it was legal in 1976), the vast majority of the nearly 3,300 people currently on death row in America were convicted in state and local courtrooms. And studies show that the people who make up the juries in those states overwhelmingly support the death penalty. That is, of course, a key feature of the American legal system: as with its political system, those powers not explicitly held by the federal government are left to the states – including the power to determine and prosecute most crimes. So, in the 34 states that have the death penalty , crimes that might net only life imprisonment in another state carry the risk of death. In California, which has death penalty statutes on the books and the greatest number of prisoners with death sentences, but which has only executed 13 people since 1976, those convicted of heinous crimes might face the ultimate sentence but are generally secure in the knowledge that they’ll likely never face the ultimate punishment. While the death penalty enjoys broad support in public polls, those same polls reveal that, like its application, support for the punishment varies regionally, with residents in liberal, coastal states less inclined to use it or support it than their southern or midwestern counterparts. While the calls for Troy Davis’s reprieve poured into Georgia from all over the country, and the world, the likelihood is that a minority of those callers spoke with a Georgia accent – a fact that, for a local prosecutor, a local judge and a state-selected board, probably mattered more than the most famous named person who picked up the phone today. All politics, it’s said, is local … and so is most crime and punishment in the United States, for better or, for many today, for worse. Troy Davis Capital punishment State of Georgia United States Amnesty International US supreme court Megan Carpentier guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …How to account for the failure of public outcry to stay Davis’s execution? In short, people in Georgia support the death penalty On Wednesday, Troy Davis became the 33rd person executed in the United States in 2011 (and there are nine remaining executions scheduled for this year that have not been stayed, as of publication time ). But with with the exception of Humberto Leal , nearly all those other men went to their deaths with little public outcry. Not so Davis, whose execution had been stayed twice previously and whose conviction even sent back to the state court for review by the US supreme court. But a state judge ruled the conviction valid, a third stay was denied and a state body in Georgia denied clemency this week – despite a vast outcry in the US and from abroad. Beyond all standard legal options, Davis’s supporters – including Amnesty International – began a public, viral campaign to encourage the local prosecutor and local judge to withdraw the execution order. Though Davis was convicted in a court of law, seven eyewitnesses have since recanted or contradicted their testimony , with some saying they were pressured by the police; jurors in the case say they wouldn’t vote to convict him if he had been tried today. But it was all for naught: it usually takes extraordinary circumstances and new evidence that decisively rules out the person convicted – as the 17 former death row inmates exonerated by DNA know too well – to convince almost anyone of a convicted criminal’s innocence. And sometimes, even then, prosecutors, judges and politicians still choose to find such evidence less than compelling. The US legal system offers defendants the presumption of innocence before conviction. Post-conviction, though, the legal presumption is that the 12 citizen jurors made the correct decision and that the defense lawyers and prosecutors did their jobs honestly and to the best of their abilities – a reasonable theory, but unable to account for the 273 people exonerated (some posthumously) thanks to the efforts of the Innocence Project . What justice campaigners and death penalty abolitionists don’t fully appreciate, perhaps, is the extent to which executions are a state matter, decided by state courts and judiciaries, with juries reflecting attitudes that pertain to that state. While 60 people sit on federal death row (and the federal government has only executed three people – all during the second Bush adminstration – since the supreme court decided it was legal in 1976), the vast majority of the nearly 3,300 people currently on death row in America were convicted in state and local courtrooms. And studies show that the people who make up the juries in those states overwhelmingly support the death penalty. That is, of course, a key feature of the American legal system: as with its political system, those powers not explicitly held by the federal government are left to the states – including the power to determine and prosecute most crimes. So, in the 34 states that have the death penalty , crimes that might net only life imprisonment in another state carry the risk of death. In California, which has death penalty statutes on the books and the greatest number of prisoners with death sentences, but which has only executed 13 people since 1976, those convicted of heinous crimes might face the ultimate sentence but are generally secure in the knowledge that they’ll likely never face the ultimate punishment. While the death penalty enjoys broad support in public polls, those same polls reveal that, like its application, support for the punishment varies regionally, with residents in liberal, coastal states less inclined to use it or support it than their southern or midwestern counterparts. While the calls for Troy Davis’s reprieve poured into Georgia from all over the country, and the world, the likelihood is that a minority of those callers spoke with a Georgia accent – a fact that, for a local prosecutor, a local judge and a state-selected board, probably mattered more than the most famous named person who picked up the phone today. All politics, it’s said, is local … and so is most crime and punishment in the United States, for better or, for many today, for worse. Troy Davis Capital punishment State of Georgia United States Amnesty International US supreme court Megan Carpentier guardian.co.uk
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£12.7bn computer scheme to create patient record system is to be scrapped after years of delays An ambitious multibillion pound programme to create a computerised patient record system across the entire NHS is being scrapped, ministers have decided. The £12.7bn National Programme for IT is being ended after years of delays, technical difficulties, contractual disputes and rising costs. Health secretary Andrew Lansley, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude and NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson have decided it is better to discontinue the programme rather than put even more money into it. The axe may be wielded , with ministers likely to criticise the last Labour government for initiating the project but doing too little to ensure it delivered its objectives. An announcement has been expected for months after the National Audit Office cast serious doubt on the wisdom of ploughing further money into the scheme and David Cameron told MPs in May that he was considering that advice. Whitehall sources confirmed the decision had been made because of coalition cost-cutting and the ongoing problems. “It was meant to be a very helpful thing for NHS staff and patients but instead has become this amazingly top-heavy, hideously expensive programme. The problem is, it didn’t deliver”, said a Department of Health source. “It was too ambitious, the technology kept changing, and loads and loads of money has been put into it. It’s wasted a lot of money that should have been spent on nurses and improving patient care, and not on big international IT companies.” The move comes after ministers received fresh advice from the Cabinet Office’s major projects authority, which assesses the value for money of major public spending schemes. It concluded “there can be no confidence that the programme has delivered or can be delivered as originally conceived”, recommending ministers “dismember the programme and reconstitute it under new management and organisation arrangements”. Its highly critical verdict said: “The project has not delivered in line with the original intent as targets on dates, functionality, usage and levels of benefit have been delayed and reduced. It is not possible to identify a documented business case for the whole of the programme. Unless the work is refocused, it is hard to see how the perception can ever be shifted from the faults of the past and allowed to progress effectively to support the delivery of effective healthcare.” Health minister Simon Burns, who is responsible for the NHS, said recently: “The nationally imposed system is neither necessary nor appropriate to deliver this. We will allow hospitals to use and develop the IT they already have and add to their environment either by integrating systems purchased through the existing national contracts or elsewhere.” Providers of NHS care such as hospitals and GP surgeries will now be told to strike IT deals locally and regionally to get the best programmes they can afford. It is still unclear how much money the government has agreed to pay contractors in recent negotiations over cancellation fees for scrapping the project. Lansley told the the Daily Mail: “Labour’s IT programme let down the NHS and wasted taxpayers’ money by imposing a top-down IT system on the local NHS, which didn’t fit their needs. “We will be moving to an innovative new system driven by local decision-making. This is the only way to make sure we get value for money from IT systems that better meet the needs of a modernised NHS.” Serious doubts about the project’s future were confirmed this year when the cross-party House of Commons public accounts committee said it was “unworkable” and that, despite huge investment, had failed to deliver. NHS Health policy Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk
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