Dose of realism for NHS IT plan.

The article focuses on the national programme for IT in the NHS (NPfIT) in Great Britain, which was launched three years back with the publication of a strategy document "21st Century IT." It was warned at the time that it was an extraordinarily ambitious programme given that the British Department of Health had failed to implement successfully much smaller, national technology-based schemes. Now an authoritative paper, published by the British Medical Journal last week on the NPfIT, has raised some structural concerns about the project. One of their most important suggestions is that Connecting for Health, which runs the NPfIT, improves communication by listening as well as talking. Many trusts and GP practices are taking part in implementations of national systems and those running the scheme should be congratulated for helping to ensure that it is perceived by NHS boards of directors as an important initiative. With more than 6bn pound of taxpayers' money invested in the national programme, Connecting for Health needs all the credibility it can muster.