NHS Commissioning Board to take over NHS IT strategy

NHS Commissioning Board to take over NHS IT strategy:

Assent for health and social care bill would see NHS Connecting for Health pass responsibility for informatics to NHS Commissioning Board

Responsibility for NHS IT strategy could fall to the NHS Commissioning Board from next year.

Alan Perkins, the resources and transition director at NHS Connecting for Health, told the public sector efficiency expo in London that the new arrangements "are going to be established in 2012 for implementation in April 2013" subject to parliamentary process and the health and social care bill getting royal assent.

The NHS Commissioning Board would replace the current lead on NHS informatics, NHS Connecting for Health, and provide a "whole range of things from policy through to strategy, to delivery and even ownership of some systems".

The NHS Commissioning Board, which currently exists as a special health authority, would also commission IT for delivery on a national basis from a separate "lean organisation".

Perkins said that where there is a need for a single IT system across the NHS nationally, the DH will continue to provide it, but that the department intends to stimulate a "vibrant healthcare marketplace" for technology locally - "quite a significant change from where we have been in the past", he added.

"For those local systems, the thinking is that each provider will be responsible for their own requirements, although providers might choose to work together and share systems, securing better value for money."

Policy around health and social care informatics will be governed by a small team within the Department of Health, Perkins said. Guardian Professional.