Agency bid to 'suppress' NHS report

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

NHS Connecting for Health, which is overseeing the £12.4 billion upgrade of the patient records system, asked for a halt to publication of the study from the British Computer Society (BCS), it was alleged.

An article in Computer Weekly magazine, and confirmed by the BCS, said the NHS's director general of IT, Richard Granger, did not want the report published after seeing a draft, but the BCS published its report in December anyway - although it did agree to some of the requested revisions.

The report, which reacted positively to parts of the programme, also said that the "services deployed so far represent poor value for money".

Political pressure had caused health officials to "deny problems and to defend the indefensible" and implementation plans had "all too frequently ranged from the optimistic to the unreal", it added.

The report's author, Ian Herbert, vice chairman of the BCS's health informatics forum, told a recent conference that Mr Granger did not want the report published, saying he wanted to do something "more opaquely behind closed doors".

The BCS made 17 changes at the request of NHS Connecting for Health, but did not make all the suggested revisions. A BCS spokesman said today: "NHS Connecting for Health tried to suppress our report after reading the draft version."

A spokeswoman for NHS Connecting for Health said: "The British Computer Society is a respected body that we have worked with since the inception of the National Programme and its report is largely positive about NPfIT. It is a matter for the BCS and other bodies to publish any reports they commission."

The Government's National Programme for IT has been beset by problems and has come in for criticism as medics have voiced fears over the confidentiality of patient records while some parts of the system are way behind schedule.

The programme is designed to link more than 30,000 GPs to nearly 300 hospitals over a 10-year period. The new service includes an online booking system, a centralised medical records system for 50 million patients, e-prescriptions and fast computer network links between NHS bodies.