Article

2011-09-22 Britain

Disastrous £11.4bn NHS IT programme to be abandoned

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Posted by lotp 2011-09-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 From this famous column by Paul Krugman for the NYT,

"...In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. Weve all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false...."

Posted by Lord Garth 2011-09-22 08:56|| 2011-09-22 08:56|| Front Page Top

#2 This has to be a scam, a government sponsored ripoff. No way in hell can a legitimate IT project cost that much and take so long to complete. Did they ever hear of the Internet? Even a private TCP/IP network would be cheaper. You get a bunch of servers, install Linux operating system and Oracle database and there you go. Eleven million pounds, tops. Even that would probably be too high. These people cannot possibly be that stupid.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2011-09-22 11:43|| 2011-09-22 11:43|| Front Page Top

#3 Dear Abu boo. After 30+ years in IT, the last 15 as a consultant this is all too common.

I consulted at big businesses that KNEW they were getting ripped off (I told them so) chapter and verse BUT the internal politics of the situation were such that nothing could be stopped. Everyone is out to protect, and grow, their own little piece of turf it is really mind boggling. If something is wrong throw more resources at it. On one trip to GM we found 5 different consulting companies involved. A couple of which were "hired" by another consulting company. Each contract was overseen by it's own senior manager and in house bureaucracy. Probably 30 hrs a week was spent in meetings trying to work out differences.

Worked at a Naval site and you wouldn't believe the waste in the IT area of the DoD. Every Admiral, General and bureaucrat had (in their own minds) their own requirements for unique solutions that everyone else was supposed to cater for. God awful all day every day.

Posted by AlanC 2011-09-22 13:45|| 2011-09-22 13:45|| Front Page Top

#4 California's Departments of Motor Vehicles, Child Support Enforcement, Social Services (welfare divisions), Courts and God know who else could all tell you stories. Government IT cluster fornications historically are like glaciers in Antarctica -- they're unstoppable until they drop into the sea and melt of their own accord.

Posted by Pollyandrew 2011-09-22 17:40|| 2011-09-22 17:40|| Front Page Top

#5 They way I understand it they had it broken down into regions (as I recall 8 of them) and each region could be handled by a different company and different sets of bureaucratic knots..

Probably very much like the situation you described AlanC - except you have 8 different sets of providers - 8 different [and of course incompatable] designs and sets of interfaces.

Posted by CrazyFool 2011-09-22 17:49|| 2011-09-22 17:49|| Front Page Top

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