§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what has been the cost of the Hospital Information Support Systems project in each year since its inception;
(2) what level of financial support her Department intends to make available to hospitals that have become trusts to continue the development of HISS.
§ Mr. SackvilleIntegrated hospital systems were seen as a key feature of the future information management and technology in the acute sector and, when the national health service reforms were being formulated, were seen as important for the development of contracting. As soon as the NHS reforms were announced a team was set up to run projects to explore these matters.
664WUntil recently the team dispersed sums to support projects of varying sizes, the amounts of which are shown in the table.
This phase is virtually complete and the team is involved primarily in tracking benefits realisation, disseminating results, assisting those considering a hospital information support system, supporting activities like consortia to get better value for money and vetting £1 million plus projects under the new approval process.
Year £ 1989–90 5,000,000 1990–91 7,500,000 1991–92 12,750,000 1992–93 21,215,000 1993–94 6,690,000 To complete the hospital information support sy stem programme, a total of £1.668 million is being allocated to trusts for specific purposes in 1994–95. The further funding of HISS systems is a local responsibility.