NHS IT programme forecasts better care and a billion in savings
-- Posted on Thursday, March 27 2008

The new IT systems in the NHS are on course to deliver better care and an estimated £1.14 billion in savings by 2014, according to the first annual Benefits Statement published by the Government.

It shows that since its introduction, the National Programme for IT has already delivered a total of £208 million in savings by providing quicker, more efficient and convenient patient care.

The report summarises information from 1 in 5 Trusts who have implemented new IT from the National Programme. It found that, of the ?208 million in savings to 31 March 2007:

£192 million had been saved through the delivery of the National Network for the NHS - a secure, high quality network that underpins many applications (with an additional £95 million per year of forecast recurrent savings using evidence from 2006/7).

£14 million had been saved from the use of digital imaging and scans (plus an additional £35 million per year of forecast recurrent savings now the system is fully implemented).

£617,000 savings on software licensing and hardware maintenance costs had been achieved (plus a forecast £1.6 million of annual savings using evidence from 2006/7).

This provides a forecast of ?120 million a year in annual savings based on information for 2006/7.

The Programme is also the first to fully implement a digital image and scanning system in any G8 country. As a result every year 5,000 more patients are able to have their procedures performed because in the past 20% of X-ray films used to go missing.

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