40bl

[dvtimes]

What on earth is costing 40 billion for an NHS database?

Its just a database.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My old BBC B had a database with it.

Surly its not that complecated.

1. Go to PC world.
2. Hand over £50
3. Walk away with a database softwear
4. Pop it on your pc.
5. Enter the data.


I fail to see why any firm would expect to get 40 billion to do that.

What a con.

This is what bugs me. They will be happy enogh to spend thousands staking old some twit who is doing an hours or so delivering papers while unemployed, yet they can just hand over a ton of cash for no reason.

[Pandemos]

The price is indeed ridiculously high, sadly not untypical for a goverment IT project and there will be many people getting fat on the profits.

However it's considerably more complicated than just buying £50 database software. The NHS IT programme is quite possibly the biggest, most complex IT project in world history.

[fredicus]

However it's considerably more complicated than just buying £50 database software. The NHS IT programme is quite possibly the biggest, most complex IT project in world history.
The difference being, the £50 DB will work.

:)

.

[Jase]

If they reckon 40 billion now I bet it costs twice that and is at least 5 years late!!

[spann0]

its gonna be complicated I mean you have to link everything up so you are probly talking about creating a national wide private intranet but 40 billion seems a bit much

I think governments and non-adult companies feel re-assured they are getting good stuff when they pay too much for computer stuff like with websites all the porn people just use linux or freebsd and get on with it

[dvtimes]

40 billion is what the cost of a huge firm is. I mean you could probably buy Microsoft for that.

Lets face it, you could start a space agency for that cash.

And why should it be all that advanced? The police have had files on a PC for a while. Why not just add a few more files to that.

And to be honest, I do not think it needs some super network, as at the end of the day, I could not care less if people have access to my medical records.

But remember its just a database at the end of the day.

Also do not forget it only takes a decision to add records in a different way, or whatever and the whole thing is out of date.

OK, it may be nice to have a sexy computer system, but there are far more urgent things that the country needs.

Its basicly that Labour love to spend huge amounts of cash on nothing.

OH by the way, do you still want the ID card? Or do you think that will only cost a few pounds.

But as I say. Its a sodding database. Even your mobile phone has one. They are the most common bit of softwear going.

You do not need to spend more than 10k and a decent system.

[xcite-tv]

you will find that one member of the cabinet responsible for making this decision has shares or is a Non-Exec of the company that "won" the tender to supply and install..

remember Blunket who "invested" in the company that is going to make the biometric ID cards after it was his decision to implement them

[Jase]

40 billion is what the cost of a huge firm is. I mean you could probably buy Microsoft for that.

Lets face it, you could start a space agency for that cash.

And why should it be all that advanced? The police have had files on a PC for a while. Why not just add a few more files to that.

And to be honest, I do not think it needs some super network, as at the end of the day, I could not care less if people have access to my medical records.

But remember its just a database at the end of the day.

Also do not forget it only takes a decision to add records in a different way, or whatever and the whole thing is out of date.

OK, it may be nice to have a sexy computer system, but there are far more urgent things that the country needs.

Its basicly that Labour love to spend huge amounts of cash on nothing.

OH by the way, do you still want the ID card? Or do you think that will only cost a few pounds.

But as I say. Its a sodding database. Even your mobile phone has one. They are the most common bit of softwear going.

You do not need to spend more than 10k and a decent system.

You made a reasonable point in your first post but now your talking bollocks!!

[Jase]

Come to think of it where did you get that figure from? Usually you post a reference to the BBC website but in this case there is nothing!

[dvtimes]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5028762.stm
http://society.guardian.co.uk/e-public/story/0,,1642192,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2136644,00.html

I am sure they said 40 billion on tv, but news seems to say 6 billion. But still 6 billion is still stupid.

i'm sure the latest space station is not costing much more.

[A Priest]

this may be my first post (i forget! - i lurk too often), but if it is - then Hi! :)

Basically I work in the NHS in IT - but I dont want too, thats why im trying so far unsuccessfully to change careers and become a full time AWM. Anyway, back to the point, why is the NHS spending so much cash?

Well think about how many computer iliterate staff we have? Our trust has about 3500, and growing. Out of that, maybe 500 are computer literate, maybe 1000 more can get by, and the other 2000 keep me in a job! So if you have to train 2000 staff work out the figures:

A manager + 5 full time in house trainers combined salaries probably £150k a year (conservative estimate).

Time to train 1 member of staff (our trust does this on a one to one basis!) is basically 3 hours wage of that staff member, so from about £30 - £90 + so thats about £60-180k just training our staff on how to use it. Then they all need a new PC to use the system, with a special keyboard and a special swipe card so factor in about £600 a PC to set it all up, so thats about £1.2million, not even thinking about support costs, new servers, upgrading NHS net to cope with the increased traffic.

So take into account each trust is probably spending about 2-5 million to implement the stupid database, and there are at least 5 trusts that i know of in the area, not mentioning the GP surgeries (imagine the wage costs training those guys!) and you have a vast amount of NHS wastage, as per usual.

You guys think its crazy from the outside? Imagine being in my position.

I know you'll appreciate this fact though - i just worked the past 8 days including bank holiday monday doing IT on call for my trust. I mainly support the database mentioned and i get probably 2-3 calls an evening (24/7, like one call last week was 3am, another was 6.50am on saturday morning) and guess how much i get paid to do this? £0.63p an hour.

Go figure! the nhs doesnt waste money in every department :(

[fredicus]

MossyUKhow much i get paid to do this? £0.63p an hour.
Wow!
Your going to have to work real hard as a AWM to make that sort of money regularly !! :lmao2:

[strictlybroadband]

In my old life as an IT consultant, I worked on a big project for ES (Employment Service). When I arrived the project employed about 80 technical staff and was falling apart. The budget was growing by the day. I was one of a team of "experts" who were drafted in at great expense to fix the project. Of course, once the experts were there they got their feet under the desk and made sure they were seen as indispensable so they could keep billing forever. I had a great few months and then got bored and went on to set up my Internet company.

The government is ripped off by massive IT contractors who just run rings around politicians and civil servants. And who's prepared to bet whether some ministers from this existing government will end up on the payroll of the big consultancies like EDS (a Texan company that takes billions off us each year for delivering shite).

Most of these projects could come in at a fraction of the cost, but the big IT companies wouldn't like that very much.

[gawdi]

In my old life as an IT consultant, I worked on a big project for ES (Employment Service). When I arrived the project employed about 80 technical staff and was falling apart. The budget was growing by the day. I was one of a team of "experts" who were drafted in at great expense to fix the project. Of course, once the experts were there they got their feet under the desk and made sure they were seen as indispensable so they could keep billing forever. I had a great few months and then got bored and went on to set up my Internet company.

The government is ripped off by massive IT contractors who just run rings around politicians and civil servants. And who's prepared to bet whether some ministers from this existing government will end up on the payroll of the big consultancies like EDS (a Texan company that takes billions off us each year for delivering shite).

Most of these projects could come in at a fraction of the cost, but the big IT companies wouldn't like that very much.

Totally agree SBB - But I was on the sales and marketing side... a lot easier to get huge sales commissions for extending existing work than going out to look for new ones.....

Nice to see the gravy train hasnt stopped yet...