Nhs Computer Systems

Mr. Ruffley
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he and his officials have made of the effect on (a) patient services, (b) procurement costs and (c) IT system suppliers of the time taken between submission of the first draft of full business cases for NHS hospital trust computer systems to NHS regional offices and approval of the final version of full business cases by the NHS executive. [153094]

Mr. Denham
[holding answer 9 March 2001]: No assessment has been made of the effect of the time taken between submission of the first drafts of full business cases (FBCs) for National Health Service hospital trust computer systems to NHS executive regional offices and approval of the final versions of those FBCs by the NHS executive. FBCs are approved as quickly as is consistent with the need to ensure that the proposed investment is affordable and represents value for money to the taxpayer.

Mr. Ruffley
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his estimate is of the average time taken between submission of the first draft of full business cases for NHS hospital trust computer systems to NHS regional offices and approval of the final version of full business cases by the NHS executive. [153093]

Mr. Denham
[holding answer 9 March 2001]: The Department has approved eight full business cases (FBC) for hospital computer systems where the first draft of the FBC was submitted to the regional offices of the national health service executive on or after December 1998. On average, each of these FBCs was approved four months---------------------------------------------------------------
|NHS trust                                                    |
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|Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust                            |
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|Royal Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust            |
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|Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust                       |
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|Bolton Hospital NHS Trust                                    |
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|North Durham Health Care NHS Trust                           |
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|Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust|
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|Calderdale Healthcare NHS Trust                              |
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|Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Trust                       |
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