Deeply concerning NHS 24 IT system so late & over budget
Alison Johnstone MSP, Health spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, today (6 Oct) highlighted a report by the Auditor General into IT problems at NHS 24.
The health board's failure to launch its new IT system successfully means its cost will be £131.2 million - 73 per cent higher than the original business case. The Auditor General says "there's no quick fix available."
Alison Johnstone MSP said:
“Today’s report from the Auditor General is yet another warning to the Scottish Government to improve oversight of new IT systems. In recent months we’ve seen foul-ups in the farming payment system and the scrapping of a Police Scotland system. It’s deeply concerning that something as important as an out-of-hours health advice service is so incredibly late and astonishingly over budget.
“While it seems improvements have been made at NHS 24, the Auditor General is clear that the problems with the system won’t be fixed overnight. The public need assurances from the health board and Scottish Ministers that getting a robust, dependable telephone and online NHS 24 system is a priority, and once this has happened we need a thorough review of what went wrong to prevent a repeat.”