Skipper

The NHS IT scandal is one which never fails tom take away one's breath. The idea was to create a nationwide system of computerised records for the 55 million NHS patients. According to the Public Accounts Committee, the project, despite costing nearly £12bn and already nine years in, is 'unable to demonstrate' any benefit to the taxpayer.

It seems shed-loads of cash were spent on consultants. Apart from straightforward incompetence BT, one of the contractors involved was selling systems to NHS sites for £9m while hospitals were receiving the same kit for only £2m.

It's so strange as when I visit my GP he is able to check my records- formerly contained in a fat buff envelope- on his computer screen; so why can't all these GP systems be linked up? Moreover, when a huge store like Tesco can track tins how many tins of salmon are held in stores in Edinburgh or Manchester, why on earth can't a hugely funded national system of patient records be constructed? One of the reasons i never supported an identity cards system was because I feared a similar humungous cock-up would be made of the related IT systems.