Lib dems propose scrapping large parts of NHS IT

Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary Norman Lamb has issued proposals to scrap NHS Connecting for Health and the Care Records Service.

The MP has set out his proposals in a document, The NHS: a liberal blueprint, which is not formal party policy but Lamb’s vision of a decentralised NHS.

Commenting on the document, Lamb said: "These proposals set out a liberal approach to the NHS which can drastically reduce costs, improve the quality of care and give people a say in how their local services are run."

The document also calls for a reduced Choose and Book system that it says has caused frustration for doctors and patients and failed to deliver choice.

Lamb says Choose and Book should revert back to what it was originally designed for – a simple online appointment bookings system - and argues clinicians would welcome this.

The system had become central to determining where patients go for treatment, offering places on the basis of free beds or appointment times, which Lamb argues it is overly determinative and denies patients the choice that it had been intended to provide.

"The introduction of this system fatally lacked clinical engagement and, like the Care Records Service, has been blighted by technical problems," the document says.

It also argues that the care records system should be scrapped because there is no need for a central database and says patients should be put in charge of their own health records.

The document says the national IT strategy should instead be focused on local connectivity between primary, secondary and social care.

"This approach would also unleash the innovative energy of the small and medium-sized IT companies that have been excluded from the development of the national programme," it says.

The Conservatives have also voiced opposition to the £12.7bn National Programme for IT calling for the abandonment of the "NHS supercomputer" and proposing online health records.

Chancellor Alistair Darling recently proposed scaling back the programme to reduce the deficit.