NPfIT ‘favourability’ drops with managers

Both IM&T and general managers in the NHS appear to view the National Programme for IT less favourably than they did last year, though there is overwhelming support for the programme’s future aims, according to a new poll.

The poll conducted by MORI for Connecting for Health revealed the drop in ratings from NHS managers (-22 percentage points) who fell from being the second most favourably inclined group to the least favourable and also from IM&T managers (-21 percentage points).

The poll report comments:“It [the drop in favour] may reflect some of the delays in delivery experienced by managers over the past few months. The media also reported delays so those who didn’t directly experience delays were aware of delays happening elsewhere.

“In fact, the media coverage, which on the whole tends to be negative, may well have influenced managers views over and above the issue of delays,” it speculates, adding that the current reconfigurations in the NHS, which may affect managers more than others, may also be responsible for negative feelings.

Predictably IM&T managers maintained their lead as the group that knows most about the national programme (91%) but this rating dropped seven points compared to last year.

MORI suggest this could be because the complexity of the NPfIT projects means that staff feel less able to say they know a ‘great deal’ or a ‘fair amount’. There were regional variations too with every IM&T manager in the North-east claiming to know at least a ‘fair amount’ about the programme.

IM&T managers working for hospitals, ambulance trusts or strategic health authorities are more critical of the programme than primary care IM&T managers (37% v 21%), but an overwhelming 92% across both sectors supported the programme’s future aims. NHS managers were almost as enthusiastic with 87% supporting the programme’s aims.

MORI comments: “However, even though favourably disposed, some staff rationalise their viewpoint with positive as well as critical arguments. For example, IM&T managers identify with the goals of the programme, but in the same breath say the planning has been poor and implementation dates are not being met. A similar pattern can be observed among allied health professionals.”

Nurses appear to be the NHS staff group least informed and involved in the programme. The poll found four in five nurses said they had received none or not much information about the national programme (NPfIT) and only 13% said they had been involved in implementation.

Yet the overwhelming majority of nurses (89%), like other staff groups, felt the national programme was very or fairly important. The findings echo a poll completed last year by Nursix for the Royal College of Nursing which produced much the same results.

GPs felt substantially less favourable than hospital doctors, with 25% of GPs liking what they had seen so far compared with 46% of hospital doctors.

MORI, which conducted the telephone survey of 1197 NHS staff conducted between January and February this year, believe Choose and Book may be to blame for the lack of enthusiasm from GPs.

However, although less enthusiastic than colleagues in secondary care, GPs and practice nurses were more confident about their ability to implement the programme.

A total of 38% of GPs polled reckoned it would be fairly easy or easy to implement NPfIT in their own practices compared with 24% of hospital doctors. Similarly 41% of practice nurses thought it would be fairly easy or easy to implement in their own organisations compared to 25% of hospital nurses.

The full survey is available here