Case Study: Resurrecting the Failed NHS Data Integration Project - Approach and Impact of Project Ma

Background on Failed NHS Data Integration Project

Consider the following case study. Circa 2003, the then UK Government embarked upon a project to link all parts of the National Health Service’s data. At the time, this was the largest civilian IT scheme ever attempted but it quickly started to miss deadlines, had specifications change, technical challenges, and suppliers walking out of contracts agreed for the provision of both materials and services. If you consider that the NHS in the UK is the world’s 5th largest employer and whilst its actual organizational structure and how monies are shared across the organization relatively frequently change, the actual services which it provides to ensure the health of the UK population does not.. NHS Services:

 

Primary care – GP’s (local doctors which are usually a person’s first port of call if they are sick), dentists and pharmacists Secondary care – planned hospital care, emergency care (hospital accident and emergency, walk-in centres and also out of hours services and telephone support lines for advice and guidance) Mental health services Rehabilitation and post operative care Primary care providers and also secondary care administrators can commission services from the private sector too and so an NHS patient may not be treated in an NHS hospital.

 

Individual data is recorded whenever a person visits a health professional within any of these services provided aside from when they purchase medication available without a prescription from a doctor from a pharmacist. With a population of circa 60 billion people, this is a lot of data! Information within an individuals health records include: Personal data such as name, age and address Health conditions Treatments and medicines Allergies Tests, scans and x-ray results Lifestyle information Hospital admission and discharge information The objective of the data project was to store all of this data within one database which all health professionals could access and update so that, for example, if an individual was attending an emergency service such as Accident and Emergency, especially out of hours, information such as their health conditions and any current medication being taken could be accessed by the doctors treating that individual rather than endeavoring to contact their primary health care provider when they are next able to do so. Whilst you do not need to understand the project which ultimately failed and was cancelled, you can read the background to it online if you search for the NHS failed data integration project.

 

Question 1 (750 words) As a newly appointed project manager for the resurrection of this project, with reference to the literature and project management theory and models, evaluate how you could approach scoping and developing a business case for such a project with the objective of determining project objectives and key deliverables. How might an effective project manager approach this? What techniques might they use? To what extent would scoping and project initiation documents assist? What might be the role of stakeholders here?

 

Question 2 (500 words) Considering the same NHS project, a project to upgrade IT equipment within your own organization and a project to introduce a new piece of equipment within your own organization. Evaluate how the context and project type impact on how the project is likely to be scoped, the project life cycle and the project management process. Some links which will help the expert to answer the above question. https://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/Six-reasons-why-the-NHS-National-Programme-for-IT-failed. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040259/NHS-IT-project-failure-Labours-12bn-scheme-scrapped.html. https://www.itpro.co.uk/it-infrastructure/31946/failed-nhs-it-system-will-cost-7m-to-stabilise