Shadow Health Minister Stephen O’Brien has challenged the Government to come clean about attempts to lock in wasteful NHS IT contracts.
The Government is holding negotiations with NHS IT suppliers in an attempt to reset the £12.7 billion contracts by the end of March, tying the hands of both taxpayers and the next Government.
"It is devastating for taxpayers to watch the Government sign away billions more pounds on a failing IT Programme and tie the hands of the next Government", Stephen O'Brien said.
"Labour claims it is making efficiency savings but cutting the deal with suppliers by as little as £600 million does not reflect the scale by which they have failed to deliver. After 6 years, only 13 NHS hospital Trusts have basic IT systems in place and over £6 billion has been spent – that’s around half a billion per NHS Trust."
Health Minister Mike O’Brien revealed on the Today Programme that the Government were attempting to deliver the £600 million efficiency savings laid out in the pre-budget report through their negotiations with suppliers and that he hoped to have a memorandum of understanding agreed by the end of March.
Stephen O’Brien called on the Government to acknowledge that the only viable route forward is to end the monopoly of the NHS IT suppliers and embrace the Conservatives’ plan to publish open standards and give local NHS Trusts a choice of interoperable proven IT systems.
"We can’t go on like this. The choice at this election will be five more years of Gordon Brown’s wasteful IT programmes or change with the Conservatives", he added.
Click here to listen to his reaction on the Today programme.