NHSmail barometer

According to the government, the 'transition' of the NHS from its old, inefficient, un-modernised state, to its new svelt, efficient, modernised state was accomplished on 1 April this year.  At least all of the key tasks of 'lifting and shifting' staff from closing organisations to opening organisations had been done and major change to IT systems had taken place.

I should know, I've read the closure report of the Informatics Transition Programme without falling asleep.

But what's this that a colleague has posted to my email account today?  It appears to be a catalogue of failure for local organisations to properly reconfigure NHSmail to reflect the new organisational structure.

The main points are:

• On 30 June, about 116,000 NHSmail accounts had not been transferred to new organisations (a third of those affected)
• 21,000 generic mailboxes had not been moved
• 76 closed organisations (i.e. those abolished on 31 March) were still creating new NHSmail accounts
• Local administrators had not been assigned to cover pharmacies, opticians and dentists in 7 out of 25 areas

Now there is a limit to the conclusions you can draw from this kind of information, but it does seem that, behind the scenes, it's taking very much longer than anticipated to set up the new, supposedly improved NHS.

The document was provided as background with a request to NHS England to provide assistance and pressure on local organisations to get their act together.  Precious hope there, given that NHS England is still struggling to set itself up, appoint people to key posts and develop its operating arrangements.

It's going to take 3-5 years for this round of changes to shake out and bed in.  And that's only if Andy Burnham doesn't set the whole sorry mess in motion again in 2015.