<<< Logo for Britain's National Health Services [failed] program.
From the UK - we learn that 10 year effort at establishing a central data base for their health system has officially failed and is being abandoned:
A plan to create the world's largest single civilian
computer system linking all parts of the National Health Service is to be
abandoned by the Government after running up billions of pounds in bills.
Ministers are expected to announce next month that they are scrapping a central
part of the much-delayed and hugely controversial 10-year National Programme
for IT.
Instead, local health trusts and hospitals will be allowed
to develop or buy individual computer systems to suit their needs – with a much
smaller central server capable of "interrogating" them to provide
centralised information on patient care. News of the Government's plans comes
as a damning report from a cross-party committee of MPs concludes that the
£11.4bn programme had proved "beyond the capacity of the Department of
Health to deliver".
The Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that, while
the intention of creating a centralised database of electronic patient records
was a "worthwhile aim", a huge amount of money had been wasted.
"The department has been unable to demonstrate what
benefits have been delivered from the £2.7bn spent on the project so far,"
Margaret Hodge, chair of the PAC, said. "It should now urgently review
whether it is worth continuing with the remaining elements of the care-records
system. The £4.3bn which the department expects to spend might be better used
to buy systems that are proven to work, that are good value for money and which
deliver demonstrable benefits to the NHS." A further £4.4bn was expected
to be spent on other areas of the vast IT project.
