What would have been the world’s largest civilian system has been abandoned by the Government, despite already costing taxpayers £10bn.
The NHS patient record system scheme that was bought in under the Labour government has been abandoned. MPs on the public accounts committee said the final costs are expected to increase further because the new regional IT systems for the NHS are being poorly managed.
Described as the biggest IT failure ever seen by the government, successive ministers and civil servants have been blamed by committee members for the doomed NHS project.
David Gillbanks, practice director, at Xceed Group, said: "When you set about change its on the understanding that it is a necessary evil. You’d much rather not expend the time and money, but the benefits to be had outweigh those costs. A project fails when confidence does, whether that’s due not believing the project will achieve its goals, will take too long or cost too much.
"Success or failure is less about technologies or methodologies than it is about experience and attitude. The success of any project stands or falls on the people that work on it; get the people wrong and you’re doomed from day one. Get them right and almost all obstacles are surmountable. Whilst good people are the foundation, it’s also crucial that requirements and goals are adequately articulated, baselined and understood by everyone involved before a project commences."
John Turner, board director at Xceed Group added: "Knowing the exact status of a project across all the different moving parts (i.e. the different workstreams and modules or applications) can be a huge challenge. Very large programmes fail because the governance is not strong enough and the clarity and transparency of progress is not good or disciplined enough.
"Human nature is such that no one wants to be the one telling the bad news so bad news is usually watered down in the reporting. This will happen across a large project until inevitably the facts come out. This lack of transparency is the common cause of why programmes go from ‘green’ at one status meeting to ‘glowing red’ at the next, and why programmes seem to be on track and then suddenly slip 6 months or more. Inexperienced executives are always puzzled about why that happens. The answer is constant tight controls and reporting with independent checking – and being managed by people who know how to do it!"
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