HC Deb 20 October 2003 vol 411 cc427-8W
Mrs. Iris Robinson

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what comparative studies have been conducted on the cost of improving health service information technology in Northern Ireland and schemes in the rest of the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement. [131918]

Angela Smith

To date no formal comparative studies have been conducted on the cost of improving health service information technology in Northern Ireland and schemes in the rest of the United Kingdom. My Department published earlier this year a new ICT Strategy for the HPSS, which will set the overall direction of investment for modernising ICT services over the next 10 years. This strategy will be taken forward in a cost-effective way and will make use of developments, products and services sourced as far as possible from the same supplies who supply systems to the NHS.

Mrs. Iris Robinson

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on standards in NHS information technology; and what costs have been incurred from the recent modernisation of the technology. [131922]

Angela Smith

Northern Ireland works closely with the other UK administrations in the development of standards for use in ICT in healthcare and my Department is fully committed to adopting any UK-wide standards for use in the HPSS.

In addition to using UK standards, within the HPSS the policy has historically been to use common IT solutions for common problems. This has led to the use of standard IT systems throughout the HPSS, for example in patient administration, clinical support services, finance and administration.

Since 1 April 2002, costs incurred in NI-wide ICT modernization projects have been:

  1. i. £4.2 million for the implementation of a unique patient and client identifier for use within health and social care throughout Northern Ireland together with the provision of a highly secure 'always on' communications network and E-Mail and Internet services to all GPs (contract let July 2003).
  2. ii. £4.3 million for the consolidation of 104 obsolescent computers in the HPSS into two highly resilient, mutually supportive computer systems to serve the whole HPSS (Contract let December 2002).

Both of these contracts were let by open competition under EC/GATT rules. £1.2 million has also been made available to HPSS bodies specifically to further encourage and facilitate the use of IT by health and social care clinical and professional staff, mainly through the provision of additional PCs and data communications equipment.