2008: a year of two halves

This article first appeared on Microsoft’s NHS Resource Centre on 15 December 2008 (site now defunct; ).

For many people, 2008 will be remembered as a year of two halves: the months before the banks and housing market collapsed; and the months after the “credit crunch” took hold.

For many people in the NHS, 2008 will also be remembered as a year of two halves: the months leading up to the health service’s 60th anniversary; and the months afterwards, when it was left with another ten year vision for reform and another report on NHS IT to digest.

Plenty of themes also reoccurred throughout the year. Security, inevitably, loomed large; while green issues made their way onto the agenda for the first time. The imperative to improve NHS IT infrastructure was repeated, while interest grew in virtualisation and exciting new technologies appeared.

Then, towards the end of the year, the first effects of the credit crunch started to make themselves felt. The Operating Framework 2009-10 warns the NHS it will need to make efficiency savings, even as it delivers on the Darzi reforms.

Fortunately, IT can help with both efficiency and quality. So sit back, relax and trip down memory lane with the Microsoft NHS Resource Centre’s review of the year that was 2008…

January

Gordon Brown delivered a New Year message to the NHS, to mark the start of its 60th year. He said the anniversary would be marked by a new constitution and “a broadening and deepening of reform.”

Delegates to Microsoft’s annual chief information officers’ summit, heard this would present fresh challenges to NHS IT. Mark Ferrar, NHS Connecting for Health’s director of infrastructure, told the event NHS organisations should focus on infrastructure improvement to be ready to meet them. Find out more in our article about the event - **.

Meanwhile, regular NHS Resource Centre writer Nick Saalfeld introduced readers to a hot technical topic – virtualisation - with his article **.

February

The shock of HM Revenue and Customs’ loss of 25 million child benefit details on two, unsecured CDs in the post continued to be felt across the public sector. The Commons’ justice select committee demanded tougher penalties for data breaches. Read more about their thoughts in **.

An era also came to an end as the director general of NHS IT, Richard Granger, officially left NHS Connecting for Health, the agency that runs the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

Microsoft published a new, online version of its Infrastructure Optimisation tool, to help NHS organisations profile their IT infrastructures and plan improvements. Read ** to find out more.

March

Figures released by the Department of Health showed that the national programme had significantly underspent its budget, because of delays to its key electronic patient record systems. However, the first ever benefits statement issued by NHS CFH showed that it had also notched up significant achievements as discussed in **.

Microsoft launched new versions of its Windows and SQL servers see **. And the Microsoft NHS Common User Interface Programme released new tools to make it easier for NHS staff to find medical information – without leaving their computer desktop. Find out how in .

April

At the Healthcare Computing conference in Harrogate, [HC 2008: News from Harrogate], Mark Ferrar returned to the subject of infrastructure and warned that the gap between the trusts with the best and worst infrastructure was growing. Delegates also heard about the potential of Microsoft’s new personal health platform, Health Vault [link to launch story].

Find out about these in ** and **.

Back on the NHS Resource Centre, Nick Saalfeld explained how Microsoft’s exciting virtual earth technology could add a whole new dimension to mapping and business intelligence in **. But security columnist Davey Winder outlined some of the perils of another exciting technology; social networking in his popular column, read **.

May

The House of Commons responded to growing demands for tough action against data breaches by passing legislation giving the Information Commissioner’s Office new powers. NHS Connecting for Health moved to buy new security technology for the NHS, including **.

On another important topic, Microsoft sponsored a major patient safety conference, visited by the Prime Minister. This stressed the role that IT can play in properly identifying patients and making sure they receive the right blood, treatment and drugs. Read how in the article **.

The resource centre deep zoomed in on the presentational power of another Microsoft technology - **

June

NHS managers met at the NHS Confederation’s annual conference in Manchester and discussed a report on the “disruptive” potential of technology that puts patients in charge of their records, health and healthcare. See .

A week later, Lord Darzi of Denham launched the final report of his year-long Next Stage Review of the NHS and proposals for an NHS constitution. He promised a higher quality service driven by more choice for patients and underpinned by IT, including a host of new information and networking sites. We talked about this in our article .

Regular GP columnist, Neil Paul, argued in ** that while IT has undoubtedly improved his working life, there are times he is tempted to go back to paper…

Come back tomorrow to find out what happened in the second half of the year…

Tags: 2008 review, cio summit, cui, darzi report, healthvault, infrastructure optimisation, security, silverlight, virtualisation