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SPECIAL FEATURE: INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD GRANGER
The National Programme
for IT in the UK National
Health Service
AN INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD GRANGER
DIRECTOR GENERAL, NHS IT
Richard Granger is the Director General of IT for
the NHS and is in charge of implementing the UK
national IT programme for the health service.
Prior to taking up this post in October 2002, he was a
partner at Deloitte Consulting. Before taking on the
challenge of modernising IT for the NHS he worked on
the successful procurement and delivery of a number of
large scale IT programmes, the most recent of which was
the Congestion Charging Scheme for London.
WHHS: What do you consider to be the key successes
in the procurement programme and why?
RG: This is an exciting and ground-breaking moment for the
National Health Service (NHS) as it takes the first steps
towards offering a truly 21st century service to its patients
and staff.
As the National Programme for IT in the NHS moves into
its implementation phase, systems and services are being
installed that will revolutionise the way the NHS works in
England, bringing benefits for patients and staff alike.
The world’s largest civil IT project, the National
Programme is aimed firmly at helping to deliver the vision of
‘a service designed around the patient’, as outlined in the
UK Government’s paper Delivering the NHS Plan. It is crucial
to the modernisation of the NHS. It is essential if the
increasing demand for care is to be met.
The procurement process itself set new standards, creating
a blueprint for others in the UK and beyond.
It was fast because so much of the modernisation of the
NHS depends on the delivery of excellent new IT systems
and services. It was different - because the programme has
contracted with suppliers who must only deploy solutions
for the NHS which have been proven to be safe, resilient and
fully functional.
It was complex because the programme brings together
different suppliers and different solutions which must be
integrated.
It was successful not least because of the major savings
Contracts Awarded
Choose & Book – Atos Origin – £65m
NHS Care Records Patient Record – Spine – BT - £620m
NHS Care Records Service – Local Service Providers:
➜ London – BT - £996m
➜ North East and Yorkshire – Accenture - £1099m
➜ North West and West Midlands – CSC - £973m
➜ Eastern England and East Midlands – Accenture – £934m
➜ Southern England – Fujitsu Alliance - £896m
New NHS Network – BT - £530m
Figure 1: NHS contracts awarded
achieved on hardware and software, compared to individual
procurements by trusts or strategic health authorities.
Contracts worth over £6bn (see Figure 1) have been
awarded to deliver the NHS Care Records Service, Choose
and Book (Electronic Booking Service) and the National
Network (N3).
Suppliers are now working in partnership with the
National Programme and the NHS to achieve a successful
implementation. At a local level, NHS IT professionals in
each of the five geographic clusters of strategic health
authorities are already working with local service providers
to ensure that local systems are compliant with national
standards and will facilitate data flow between local and
national systems.
WHHS: What is happening around implementation?
RG: As the programme moves into implementation,
engagement is increasing, both with the IT community and
with end users – NHS clinicians and frontline staff.
The recently established Care Record Development Board
(CRDB) will work on defining processes within care and
18 | World Hospitals and Health Services | Vol. 40 No. 3