NHS computer chief failed computer studies exam

NHS: Things are less than idyllic as its billion pound IT backbone crumbles

Richard Granger is one of the highest paid civil servants in charge of a £20billion project to transform the NHS's computer system.

But despite his colossal £280,000 a year pay packet, Granger's 'Connecting for Health' project is over-budget, behind schedule and threatening to become the biggest IT disaster in history.

Now we may finally have the explanation for all the problems.

His mother revealed that the man overseeing largest civilian IT project in the world failed his computer studies course while at Bristol University.

He took a year off after the debacle and was only allowed to resit the exam when 62-year-old Mary Granger appealed on his behalf.

The retired teacher, who hasn't spoken to her son for ten years after a family row, said yesterday: 'I can't believe that my son is running the IT modernisation programme for the whole of the NHS.

'He was disappointed when he failed his computer studies course at Bristol.

'It was pretty serious, so I had to write to Princess Anne, who at that time was "university visitor" there to appeal for him to be allowed to resit the exam, as initially he was refused permission.'

Mr Granger passed the exam on a resit and eventually graduated with a 2:2 in geology.

The 41-year-old worked as geologist in Singapore and Australia after leaving university before moving on to Andersen Consulting and then becoming a partner at Deloitte and Touche.

In his new role as the head of the 'Connecting for Health' project, the married father of two earns £100,000 more than Tony Blair.

The ambitious initiative was supposed to transform the NHS's computers and provide an online booking system, centralised medical records for 50 million patients and the facility to draw up electronic prescriptions.

But it is already three years late and over budget, and last month Britain's leading computer scientists called for an urgent inquiry into the crisis hit scheme, after warning it may not work.

In an open letter to MPs on the Commons Health Select Committee, 23 eminent scientists from universities including Oxford and Cambridge have raised major doubts about the project.

Pressure for an independent review has mounted after it emerged that systems problems led to 110 major incidents in hospitals in recent months.

Lives may have been put at risk after X-ray systems crashed and dozens of hospitals lost access to their main computer systems.

The British Medical Association has also warned that doctors have lost faith in the new system as they have not been properly consulted over it.

Mrs Granger, who is now a councillor, believes some of the money spent on the disaster prone 'Connecting for Health' system would have been better spent on her local hospital in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, which is under threat.

Mrs Granger is campaigning against a plan to change health services across West Yorkshire which could see the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary lose its main maternity unit.

Other services, including mental health and care for the elderly are moving to the Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax.

She said: 'I feel dismayed that I'm watching the hospital where I gave birth to my children, where Harold Wilson was born, being dismantled. Some of the money which goes into Connecting for Health could be saving my local services.'

Mrs Granger has not spoken to her son for a decade after family rows involving her husband Les, Mr Granger's stepfather, and their other two children. She would not elaborate on the subject of the rows.

In September, leading supplier Accenture announced it was quitting the 'Connecting for Health' scheme after suffering major losses.

The IT firm walked away from contracts worth £2billion after the project became bogged down by glitches.

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