The Commons Public Accounts Committee’s review into digital transformation in the NHS concluded that current proposals to transform digital services lacked effective governance, realistic and detailed plans, sufficient investment nationally and locally, and clear accountability 1 The MPs warned that lessons may not have been learnt from the failed national programme for IT from 2002 to 2011, which cost the government £10bn (€11 1bn;$13 1bn) 2 The committee’s report noted that the Department of Health and Social Care had still not achieved its headline 2014 target to achieve a paperless NHS by 2018, which has now been watered down into a new target to reach a “core level” of digitisation by 2024 Without this plan the department and its NHSX agency, set up in July 2019 to lead digital transformation, “cannot be sure that the £8 1bn of taxpayers’ money being invested in the digital transformation programme will deliver value for money,” the report warned The committee expressed concern that governance arrangements for NHSX had still not been finalised and noted a lack of transparency over the agency’s spending, with an estimated £11m spent on the first phase of the delayed covid-19 contact tracing app and another £25m likely to be spent on the second stage
Government’s plan to digitise NHS risks wasting billions, MPs warn