Smart people like it hot

• In Great-Britain: Connecting for Health


• NHS contract delays hit Accenture - BBC News - March 29, 2006
  Some goodies:
  "Second-quarter net income fell to $69.7m (£40.1m) from $209.8m a year earlier..."
  "Accenture now fears that the system will not be used by the NHS as widely as had previously been forecast."
  
  
• Anatomy of a £15bn gamble - The Sunday Times - April 16, 2006
  Some goodies:
  "They have taken all the classic mistakes ever made in previous IT failures and rolled them into one huge project..."
  "It has been driven from the centre, they haven’t consulted properly and the operations of the NHS will depend on one massive database. It’s a classic definition of how to end up with a failed IT project."
  
  
• NHS trusts pay millions in fines to suppliers of delayed IT system - The Guardian - June 6, 2006
  Some goodies:
  "At a time when hard-pressed NHS trusts are having to make painful choices to reduce deficits, they are being forced to pay money they don't have and release staff they can't spare, for something they don't want and which doesn't work..."
  
  
• Health service IT contractor in crisis - The Guardian - June 9, 2006
  Some goodies:
  "iSoft now worth less than when it floated in 2000."
  "Manchester-based iSoft has been plagued by delays to the NHS programme and there are concerns in the Square Mile that the company is suffering a cash squeeze."
  
  
• 'No believable plan' for completion of iSoft work on NHS overhaul - The Guardian - August 21, 2006
  Some goodies:
  "Beyond a basic version of Lorenzo, which has been tailored for GPs, the review found "there is no well defined scope and therefore no believable plan for releases"."
  "Even "clinical safety" was labelled red by the reviewers."
  "Steve Graham, one of the group's founders, was suspended as commercial director and iSoft said "other employees", who had since left the company, may also have been involved."
  
  
• 'Little delay' to NHS IT upgrade - BBC News - September 29, 2006
  Some goodies:
  "Accenture has handed over £1.9bn of its contracts to the US company Computer Sciences Corporation."
  "Accenture had responsibility for the roll-out in the North East and East of England but is making big losses on the work and faced fines for late delivery."
  
  
• GPs revolt over patient files privacy - The Guardian - November 21, 2006
  Some goodies:
  "Poll shows doctors fear national database will be at risk from hackers"
  "The survey reveals that four out of five doctors think the confidentiality of their patients' medical records will be at risk if the government proceeds with plans to load them on to the new database."
  
  
• Patients win right to keep records off NHS computer - The Guardian - December 16, 2006
  Some goodies:
  "The government has bowed to privacy concerns about a new NHS computer system and conceded that patients should be allowed a veto on information about their medical history being passed from their GP to a national database."
  "Lord Warner said 1,351 people wrote to Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, demanding that their medical records should not be uploaded, using a form of words devised by Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge university..."
  
  
• Commissioners must be at public's service - The Guardian - February 7, 2007
  Some goodies:
  "Neglect of the commissioning function has lain at the root of much of the NHS's problems for the past 16 years, since the internal market began, and while social care's record may be better in terms of value for money, there is still a lamentable lack of attention to individual needs and preferences, relative effectiveness and what works well elsewhere."
  "... all the main political parties share a goal of empowering users of services to become their own commissioners of those services."
  
  
• NHS director general of IT quits after repeated system delays - The Guardian - June 18, 2007
  Some goodies:
  "Britain's highest paid civil servant, the man in charge of the NHS's delayed £12.4bn IT upgrade programme, has resigned amid calls from politicians and academics for a wholesale review of the project."
  
  
• New blow for NHS e-record system - BBC News - May 28, 2008
  Some goodies:
  "Plans to computerise the NHS in England could face further delays after a contract with a key supplier was terminated, the BBC has learned."
  "The Conservative shadow health minister Stephen O'Brien said the government's attempts to "ram through a top-down, centralised, one-size-fits-all central NHS computer system" had come "crashing down around their ears"."
  
  
• NHS bosses may not replace contractor after Fujitsu's walkout - The Guardian - May 30, 2008
  Some goodies:
  "NHS bosses may not appoint a replacement for Fujitsu as one of three regional contractors leading the health service's troubled £12.7bn IT systems overhaul following the Japanese firm's decision this week to walk away."
  "Proceeding without a lead contractor for the southern region would mark an end to the original vision of a centrally orchestrated programme - the largest non-military IT project in the world - which the NAO this month confirmed was already running at least four years late."
  
  
• Google or Microsoft could hold NHS patient records say Tories - The Times - July 6, 2009
  Some goodies:
  "Health records could be transferred to Google or Microsoft under a Tory government..."
  "The drive is the first concrete proposal to emerge from the Tories’ “post-bureaucratic age” agenda, in which citizens would be given more government information in order to make choices about public services."