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4 Sep 2006 : Column 2136W—continued
National Institute for Mental Health
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) headcount and (b) whole-time equivalent people are employed in each of the National Institute for Mental Health in England/Care Services Improvement Partnership regional centres. [88277]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The numbers of people employed by care services improvement partnership (CSIP), including national institute for mental health in England (NIMHE), in each of its regional centres are as follows:
| CSIP regional centre including NHIME | Number of people employed by CISP regional centre including NHIME |
It should be noted that the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside regional development centre has significantly more employees because it covers the geographical area of two Government office regions.
National Programme for Information Technology
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 16 June 2006, Official Report, columns 1560-1W, on the NHS Care Records Service, (1) whether the systems being delivered through the National Programme for IT are compatible with the equivalent systems in Scotland and Wales; [80306]
(2) what parts of the systems developed through the National Programme for Information Technology are incompatible with the equivalent systems in (a) Scotland and (b) Wales. [84459]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales have adopted different approaches to the development of information technology support in their respective health services from those being delivered through the national programme to the national health service in England, based on their own functional requirements and assessment of priorities.
England, Scotland, and Wales co-operate closely to ensure a common approach to technical standards, through, for example, the NHS information standards board, so that, where appropriate, information can be exchanged between the health services quickly, safely and securely. Where the countries are following a common approach, there are opportunities for using the same systems. For example, Scotland is using the same N3 network services as England, and is adopting the same picture archiving and communication systems that are used in some English cluster areas. However, because of differing functional requirements and administrative arrangements, systems are not necessarily applicable across all the home countries.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total value is to date of fines paid by NHS organisations for a failure to comply with the terms of contracts related to the national programme for information technology; which NHS organisations paid the fines in each case; and if she will make a statement. [80300]
Caroline Flint:
National programme for information technology contracts do not provide for the payment of fines by national health service organisations. However, an arrangement known as the managed authorities
employees scheme provides for the secondment of NHS staff on a temporary basis to work with local service providers (LSPs) to ensure that the systems and services being developed and deployed meet the needs of the NHS. This arrangement was factored into the contracts with LSPs and reflected in the contract price. In some, though not all, cluster areas it is underpinned by a financial liability on NHS organisations for failure to source sufficient numbers of staff with the necessary expertise.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health in what way and for what reasons (a) Northumbria Healthcare, (b) Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust, (c) Dudley NHS Trust and (d) South West Yorkshire Mental Health Trust have dispensed with the NHS IT system; how much it has cost them to do so; and what her estimate is of the impact on the NHS IT programme of their actions. [83049]
Caroline Flint: None of the national health service trusts referred to has dispensed with the national programme for information technology (IT). All remain committed to the programme and its objectives, and to realising the benefits it is already bringing, and will continue to bring to NHS patients and staff.
We have always said that the programme will make maximum use of existing systems when deciding local implementation priorities. We are adopting an incremental approach to replacing existing systems, and this strategy ensures that best use is made of the existing asset base. There is scope within deployment plans in each cluster for existing systems to be replaced in either the shorter or the longer term depending on the circumstances of NHS trusts and primary care trusts locally. It makes no sense to replace prematurely systems with appropriate functionality that are delivering demonstrable benefit to patients and staff when other NHS organisations have systems that are in urgent need of replacement.
This approach to local deployment lies behind decisions made by the Northumbria Healthcare NHS trust, the Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS trust, and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS trust to defer migration to the patient administration system supplied by the local service provider (LSP). The approach is set out in programme-wide implementation guidance. The guidance which is aimed at providing structured and consistent mechanisms, and describing the critical tasks necessary to maximise benefits from the changes being enabled by the national programme, is published on the Department’s NHS Connecting for Health agency’s website at: www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/implementation The circumstances of the South West Yorkshire Mental Health Trust are slightly different.
The trust was established in April 2002 from three separate organisations, and inherited nine different clinical information systems. Due to the complexity of the current systems and the need to consolidate them it is not currently possible for the Trust to be an early development site for the national programme. The trust board has taken a decision to procure an interim clinical information system which will put it in a stronger position to transfer data onto the LSP-delivered system as soon as this becomes available.
NHS organisations that retain use of their existing systems typically incur annual maintenance costs, which are paid locally. These costs are saved following migration to solutions provided under the national programme. Information is not collected centrally about the amounts in each case. However, in the case of the Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS trust, all IT services and applications were included in the trust's overall public finance initiative contract, and no separate IT maintenance costs are payable.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) clinical and (b)
administrative IT systems have been installed in the NHS since 2002. [75132]
Caroline Flint: The period in part predates the deployment of systems and services through the national programme for information technology, and comprehensive information is not available. In particular, information is not held centrally about local information technology (IT) procurements prior to the national programme, and only partial information is held about local IT systems commissioned that are not within the national programme, such as staff administration and finance systems.
Available information is given in the table.
| National programme clinical and administrative IT installations as at 13 July 2006 | |||||
| System | Type | Primary | Secondary | Deployment level | Total deployed |
| (1 )Users registered. (2) connections—an estimated 865,000 users. Note: Clinical systems are those which health care professionals use when dealing directly with patients that is front office. Administrative systems are those which support back office facilities for example email/payments. | |||||
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