NHS National Programme for IT

2002 - 2013

The NPfIT ambitiously aimed to bring the NHS into the 21st century. An integrated digital patient record system would reform the way that the NHS uses information technology. Ultimately it would improve services and the quality of patient care. It was the largest civilian IT project in the world. 

But the programme turned into a fiasco, and was described as the ‘the biggest IT failure ever seen.’ With a costs of over £12 billion, it was certainly one of history’s most expensive IT innovation failures.

There are many reasons it failed. The project was marred by resistance created by top-down decisions being made on behalf of local organizations. The scale of the project was grossly underestimated. The programme’s innovative procurement procedures caused crippling contractual problems with suppliers. End users were not adequately involved in the development process, so the system had an ‘unprecedented scale and boundless complexity’ that made it difficult for healthcare professionals to use.

Since learning is the only way to turn failure into success, we hope that the NHS has extracted as much learning as possible from this mega-failure.

Additional info:

Theguardian - Abandoned NHS IT system has cost £10bn so far...

Computerweekly.com - Six reasons why the NHS National Programme For IT failed