The National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in an initiative in the British National Health Service to connect England's 30,000 GPs to 300 hospitals, allowing access to all patient records by health professionals and patients. There is no provision for patients to opt out of the system. It is said to be the world's biggest civil information technology programme [1].
The Programme has been criticised for its lack of security. In an interview in The Times newspaper of August 16, 2004 [2], the government's own Information Commissioner expressed concern over this and other national IT projects, indicating that there was a danger of the country "sleepwalking" into a surveillance society.
NPfIT has so far won two Big Brother Awards from the campaigning organisation Privacy International:
- 2000 - "Most Heinous Government Organisation" due to the lack of security and lack of protection to patient privicy.
- 2004 - "Most Appalling Project" for the continuation of the plans without adequately addressing the earlier concerns.
A January 2005 survey among doctors [3] indicates that support for the initiative as 'important NHS priority' has dropped to 41%, from 70% the previous year.
Originally expected to cost £2.3 billion pounds over three years, November 2004 Government estimates put the cost of the programme at between 20 and 30 billion pounds, although it is expected that this will be recovered in "savings and other benefits" [4].
From the 1st April 2005 the Programme will be renamed NHS Connecting for Health, as it absorbs both staff and workstreams from the abolished NHS Information Authority, the organisation it replaces.
The NHS in Wales is also running a national program for service improvement and development via the use of Information Technology - this project is called Informing Healthcare
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