DH outlines info plans in business plan

Devolving responsiblity for IT to NHS organisations has been highlighted as one of the coalition government’s priorities in the Department of Health’s business plan for 2011-15.

The plan, which was published today and will be updated annually, outlines a ‘vision’ for the health service that picks up the main themes of the July white paper, ‘Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS.’

It says the DH will “end the use of unnecessary and costly management bureaucracy to control the NHS from above” and devolve power to GPs and patients “empowered by a revolution in easily accessible, quality information about the results that different GPs, hospitals and other healthcare providers achieve for people.”

It then sets out a set of structural reform and other major priorities, one of which is to “devolve leadership of IT development to NHS organisations, bringing implementation closer to the frontline.”

The plan goes on to set out a timetable for reform, and promises that monthly updates on progress will be published on the DH and Number Ten websites.

The DH lists launching a consultation on a new information strategy for the NHS as one of the tasks it has already completed. The timeline indicates that key elements of the proposals in the consultation will be implemented next spring.

This says the DH will publish a plan to give patients greater control over their records next April and that the NHS Information Centre will start to publish more detailed performance indicators the same month.

Data on how many patients have gained control of their records by local authority area will be published from next September.

As part of the commitment to greater transparency in the health service, the DH will publish indicators to “allow the public to judge whether the Department is being run efficiently” and that will allow its performance to be compared with other departments.

These indicators will include the number of DH employees, the cost of the offices they occupy, the cost of the “standard desktop computer per employee and the number of electronic devices” that each employee uses, and the cost of travel.

It will also include an estimate of the number and value of government projects and whether they have been delivered on time and to budget.

Other areas of health service spending will also be opened up to greater scrutiny. As promised by the Conservative Party in the run-up to the general election, all DH spending and contracts over £25,000 will be made public.

The business plan also expands on plans to publish a number of NHS datasets that have not been previously published, but which underpin much of the planning and financial work that goes on in the health service.

These include the reference costs on which Payment by Results is based, and the Hospital Episode Statistics, which cover patients admitted to hospital.

Link: Business Plan 2011-15: Department of Health: November 2010