History does not reflect well on healthcare informatics. The
massive National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT)
programme proved to be undeliverable and the loss of political
backing at the end of the last decade resulted in it being wound
down prematurely, leaving a legacy of some things done well, some
partly and some not done at all. The key, essential, element that
it was intended to deliver - the interoperable, shared electronic
patient record - proved too challenging and was arguably its
undoing.
Indeed, attempts to mandate a centralised programme ultimately
led to a situation where the information systems and processes in
the NHS in England ended up as a patchwork of many different types
of computer system on a common, NHS-wide network. Whilst these
systems generally provide much of the basic functionality that is
needed locally, levels of interoperability between systems are low
or non-existent. While digital records have now been
implemented in
