Abstract

In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) is set to undergo a technological revolution
with the introduction of the National Programme for Information Technology (NHS Connecting
for Health, 2005a). The Programme will be gradually phased in gradually across
England over the next six years, according to priorities and when NHS organisations are
ready to implement them (NHS Connecting for Health, 2005). Similar programmes will be
rolled-out across the other home countries of the United Kingdom following a similar time
scale. This is the first time that such a project of this nature and scale has been undertaken
in the world and the cost of implementation is currently estimated at 20 billion pounds.
The “value” of the National Programme is the range of benefits from the new systems
that will be available to the NHS and its patients. These benefits range from the convenience
to patients having a choice of consultant, location and time of treatment to efficiency gains
for primary and secondary staff (NHS Connecting for Health, 2005b).
Delivering benefits to staff and patients will contribute to achieving NHS performance
improvement goals against the “Standards for Better Health”, National Service Frameworks
and other service improvement initiatives. The installation of the Information Technology
will be accompanied by significant changes to existing ways of working (Proctor, 2001).
This is turn will have an impact on the way training and education for health care staff will
be structured and delivered.
All improvement requires change. Changing the way things are done, changes in processes
and in the behaviour of people and teams of people (Garside, 1998). Implementing the
National Programme will invariably have a fundamental effect on the organisation and the
way people work. Whether it is anticipated or not, the implementation of an information system
in an organisation involves the mutual transformation of the organisation by the technology,
and of the system by the organisation (Drazen et al., 1995; Berg, 1999; Kaplan, 2001).