NHS (60th Anniversary)

The crux of the problem is that, as my hon. Friend says, we do not have an IT system. It was a system designed in Whitehall, a political imperative. No cost-benefit analysis was undertaken. There was no proper review to ensure that people who were building the system, the people who were paying for it and the people who were using it understood the same thing. Nothing like that happened; all that was undertaken was a massive commitment to spend over very many years. What do we see now? We see the whole scheme running years behind schedule, according to the National Audit Office, and we see the total cost massively above budget. We see polyclinics—sorry, GP-led health centres—being imposed on every primary care trust in the country. The Secretary of State sought to defend that, but it is indefensible. It is not sensible to tell every primary care trust that it must have a GP-led health centre and that contracts must be concluded before the end of this year. Again, that is dictating to the health service because of political priorities and political imperatives rather than sound clinical judgment.