British NHS supercomputer program under review

ComputerWorld UK had an article last week about increasing pain in the British government’s troubled IT program in the National Health Service. Some high points:

The Conservative party has commissioned the British Computer Society to review NHS IT policy including the £12.7 billion National Programme for IT, which they claim is “crashing down”.

The review is the latest sign that the NHS IT programme, now four years late, will be a political battleground in the next general election. Some projections have even predicted the programme will go over £20 billion.

…Shadow health minister Stephen O’Brien, who has labelled the national programme a “monolithic top down, centralised, one size fits all NHS supercomputer system”, has relentlessly questioned MPs about the programme in recent months.