Head of NHS upgrade system resigns

Richard Granger has resigned.  Never heard of him?  You will know his work.  He is was Britain's top paid civil servant (£290,000 a year no less) and was responsible for upgrading information technology (IT) systems and introducing electronic patient records within the NHS.  Yes, that £12bn upgrade system that has run well over budget, is two years late, is littered with problems and will not have that much benefit to actual patient care at all. 

However, with Granger going back in to the private sector it puts the whole project at serious risk.   Tony Collins, executive editor of Computer Weekly, the industry magazine, which has called for an independent inquiry into the project, said: “-Without Granger the risk is that this programme will now fall apart. The programme has highlighted the need for proper electronic records in the NHS, but you have to ask what it has achieved that trusts could not have done on their own. It has also not delivered on the main objective of a centralised patient record system.-”  This is just another set back to a project that has been one disaster after another.  No reasons have been given for Granger's departure, but you can't blame him from wanted to get away from this scheme once and for all.