[SC.LUG] Open Source NHS anyone?

[George]

Richard Pineger wrote:
> I was wondering, now that the NHS IT refresh NPfIT is starting to crumble,
> is there a place for an Open Source alternative created by a community of
> concerned citizens who, after all, really want a health service?
> 
> Does anyone else apart for me have any experience of this IT project? I can
> set up a wiki for people to throw some ideas up and I could start a petition
> on that petitions website.
> 
> What do you think?

I don't think the problem has been caused by Proprietary vs Open Source 
but rather poor management from EDS and the NHS, from the scoping of the 
contract through to it's delivery. I don't think the open development 
methodology would have reduced costs - it'd have to be bespoke tailored 
to the NHS' requirements so they'd be the ones that had to pay people to 
scope, write, implement or whatever it is that consultants do. The 
actual reusable infrastructure of the system might benefit from using 
open source and indeed might be already - it would of course be in EDS' 
interests to use them if it allowed them to submit a more competitive bid.

That said one of the comments from a doctor (I forget where, although I 
suspect it might have been the TV documentary) was that a problem with 
the project was that they were attempting to go for a huge, complex 
national system to be rolled out to all the practices, hospitals, etc. 
whereas if they had simply defined standards for the various functions 
such as data exchange a decision could have been made at a local level 
about what systems were appropriate for their needs. These smaller sub 
systems would also be more likely to be developed in an open manner, 
with there being an interest to share functionality between the various 
solutions.

George