Channel delight at scaled-back NPfIT

VARs claim scrapping the £12.7bn project could benefit the channel

Public sector VARs have welcomed news the government could scrap its £12.7bn NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

Chancellor Alistair Darling revealed earlier this month that the scheme would be scaled back. The government was quick to quell suggestions the cutbacks would entail the programmebeing axed entirely, but rival parties claimed its abandonment is long overdue.

VAR Block Solutions specialises in the healthcare sector, but managing director Jon Pickering said the move would “have little effect” on his firm. He added it could even “throw up new opportunities for relationships at a national level”.

“It is well publicised that the NPfIT is significantly over budget and has not
delivered against the objectives it set out to achieve, so this decision comes as no surprise,” he said.

Paul Sweeney, chief executive of VAR ANS Group, claimed scrapping the overarching scheme could benefit the channel and the NHS.

“The money should be put in locally,” he said.

“[The government] could have been a lot further on if it had not wasted billions of pounds on these big, ambitious plans.”