The Romtec Ltd research organisation is forecasting an 85% growth in National Health Service information technology spending over the next three years: Romtec says that the impetus for growth is coming from the government’s recent White Paper and the number of pilot schemes currently running in major hospitals and district authorities; however, IT in the Health Service highlights that spending in this sector is currently very low, and District IT spend represents less than 0.5% of the Health Service’s total budget; hardware suppliers rather than software houses are expected to remain the most important source of systems, and NHS buyers are said to be looking for financial stability in suppliers rather than an NHS track record; personal computers are a particular area of growth, and 92% of District respondents reported increased per-sonal computer budgets, with 39% of IT managers reporting 20% growth.
