RE: Warning of major NHS IT overspend

["Owen Lewis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Dave Howe
> Sent: 01 November 2004 11:40
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Warning of major NHS IT overspend
>
>
> Owen Lewis wrote:
> > And where the NHS consumes such a large part of the nation's wealth, is
> > data-mining such a bad idea? Leaving such a wealth of
> information untapped
> > might seem to verge on the irresponsible.
> Depends on a number of factors - not least, if the government sells the
> results of such data mining to pharmaceutical companies - where does the
> money go to? I would *like* to hear "why of course, back to the NHS" but
> suspect the answer will fall into either the "free money!" bucket or
> "lottery" bucket (not It Could Be You, but the fact that government
> funding was often withdrawn in expectation of lottery funding, leaving
> more "free money!" for the government to allocate elsewhere.)

Like you, I think there's a good case for the hypothecation of such income
to the NHS. However, I don't think its a key concern. The argument being
that, from all sources, govt collects X and then apportions that money
according to its priorities. Were the income from the fruits of data-mining
hypothecated, that would not mean the NHS was one jot better funded. A pity,
for it is exactly such logic that is destructive of opportunities for income
generation from within the public services.

However, the greater benefit I see, is the *knowledge* , acquired by the NHS
itself that should:

	-	Result in better patient care and improved health.

	-	Result in improved management of the service and at lower cost.

Owen