Author: Andy Cowper

The gift of a new computerised axial tomography imaging scanner to an Edinburgh hospital has ignited calls for a debate on business donations with strings.

The true scale of the NHS financial surplus for 2007-8 is being hidden by an end-of-year purchasing spree.

Hard on the heels of the recent NAO report on NHS IT, new delays have emerged after NHS Connecting For Health and IT supplier Computer Science Corporation both confirmed to the E-Health-Insider website that negotiations to reset the local service provider contracts across most of England remain unfinalised.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has promised new emphasis on preventive care to keep older people in better health for longer. Addressing a meeting at health policy think-tank the Kings Fund, Johnson challenged the NHS to provide more and better preventive care for older people and outlined a package of measures which aim to empower older people to live longer, healthier and more independent lives.

A new report from the National Audit Office points out that the programme remains behind schedule in key areas. The National Programme for IT in the NHS: Progress since 2006 points out that delivering the programme is proving to be an enormous challenge. While it notes that “all elements of the Programme are advancing and some are complete,” the NAO report adds that the original timescales for the electronic Care Records Service (a central element) “turned out to be unachievable, raised unrealistic expectations and put confidence in the Programme at risk”.