Fiasco in the NHS's IT System

There's an interesting article and editorial in The Times (London) on the fiasco that is the National Health Service's attempt to install a massive health information program that looks like it's going to cost the taxpayer over 11 billion pounds yet won't work. The editorial gives several reasons for how things have come to this point: top-down project control without appropriate local consultation, some unscrupulous suppliers, bad contracts, attempts to write software as complex as this from scratch and attempting to adopt a U.S. based health information system system in the U.K. I love the comment about programming for the long waiting lists in the U.K.: "Why don't they just book an appointment?"

The article is here.