§ Mrs. FyfeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if it is her policy that the national health service as a whole adopt hospital information support systems; what progress has been made to date; on what criteria that or any other system is selected; and if cost comparisons can now be made between similar units.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe national health service executive's information management and technology strategy en-courages hospitals to move towards the implementation of integrated information systems.
Around 50 sites in England are implementing hospital information support systems.
It is for each hospital to determine, locally, whether it can justify spending on such systems. If so, then each is expected, where relevant, to run a competitive procurement under European Community rules.
Costs of many contracts have been published in the Official Journal of European Communities, from which comparisons may be made. Copies of the journal are available in the Library.