Doctors’ belief in NHS IT project fading
- 8 February 2005
Doctors’ enthusiasm for the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has declined sharply over the past 12 months, with the steepest decline occurring among GPs. Related stories Pessimism rife about NPfIT’s benefits
A tracking survey of 900 hospital doctors and GPs, published today, found there has been a precipitous decline in GPs support for the IT modernisation programme over the past six months. The results suggest that poor communication and a lack of consultation with clinicians on the development of new IT systems and their delivery is generating distrust and cynicism just as the project is poised to begin delivery.
Jointly sponsored by E-Health Insider, The Guardian and Computer Weekly, the Medix-UK survey has been carried out every six months to gauge doctors’ views on NPfIT. The survey is the only one to have been carried out regularly since the beginning of the programme, and has previously been sponsored by the BBC and NPfIT.
A year ago, 70% of GPs said that NPfIT was an important priority for the NHS. Now just 41% do. Among non-GPs the figures are better with 68% of doctors still saying NPfIT is an important or very important priority for the NHS.
The figures on levels of support for the programme are less impressive. Asked about their likely level of support for NPfIT, some 42% of non GPs say they are fairly enthusiastic but only 9% very enthusiastic.
Among GPs though only 19% say they are fairly enthusiastic, while only 2% say they are very enthusiastic. This compares to equivalent figures a year ago for GPs of 36% and 9%.
Equally concerning, worryingly very few GPs think the programme will actually deliver the clinical benefits it is meant to. Only 13% of GPs think that, in the long term, NPfIT will significantly improve the clinical care of patients. And only 2% think it will do so in the short-term.
The figures are similarly bleak on doctors’ confidence in the security of NHS Care Records Service (CRS), the national electronic patient record project at the centre of the programme.
When asked if the CRS would be likely to mean that the confidentiality of patients’ records would be more secure, only 18% of non-GPs thought it would. A mere 6% of GPs think so.
These clear concerns about the confidentiality of patient records look set to translate into a possible GP boycott of CRS. Asked whether they agreed with a recommendation, as made at last summer’s BMA local medical committee (LMC) conference that they "should not engage with the Care Records Service until concerns about confidentiality etc. are met", some 79% of GPs said they did.
After two and a half years, an astonishing 64% of doctors still say they have little or no information about NPfIT, and 5% say that the survey was the first time they have heard of it. Just 5% say they have been adequately consulted.
Based on what they have heard doctors are also much keener on some parts of the programme than others. Despite concerns about confidentiality doctors are much more enthusiastic about the NHS CRS than they are about Choose and Book, the electronic appointment booking service.
Support for Choose and Book was found to be extremely low among both GPs and hospital doctors. Some 28% of non-GPs said they think Choose and Book is important, a view shared by a mere 8% of GPs. An overwhelming 61% of GPs – the group of doctors who will have to actually use the service – think it is not important.
The survey’s findings on GPs’ attitudes to Choose and Book closely match the results of a January National Audit Office survey of 1500 GPs. This found that around half of respondents knew very little about choice and some 60% felt negative to some degree. The report concluded: "Choice cannot be delivered without support from GPs."
GPs say they are not being listened to [EHI Primary Care]
