This follows the recent announcement of major upgrades to the system by IT services firm Atos Origin. Initial feedback from users has shown that this has already had significant benefits and has boosted ease of use, Tom Denwood, Choose and Book program head at NHS Connecting for Health, was reported as saying.
On December 12, 2006 NHS Connecting for Health issued service bulletins which said the system was experiencing degraded service, and users would experience slow responses to transactions.
Since July 2004, Choose and Book has undergone two major and 20 minor upgrades. The system was originally meant to be fully operational by the end of 2005, but the UK government pushed this date back to the end of March 2007.
