NHS Civilian IT Project: A Case Study of Project Failure

PPMP200010
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Table of Contents
Introduction and Project Information.........................................................................................3
Key issues........................................................................................................................................4
Control System...............................................................................................................................6
Analysis of cost and/or schedule overruns...................................................................................8
Analysis of project execution team...............................................................................................9
Analysis of relationship between overruns and the stakeholders...........................................11
Analysis of possible actions for success......................................................................................12
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................14
References.....................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction and Project Information
The present detailed report is made to elucidate the NHS Civilian project which is a game
changer project of the British government in the healthcare sector to support the healthcare issues
of British civilians. Details about the project and current report are explained below:
Project Details: NHS stands for national healthcare service which is a biggest health care
program in this world. The NHS Civilian IT project is planned to maintain online health record
of British civilians to serve the 4000 GP and 300 hospitals (O’Donnellan, 2016). Government
introduces it to maintain a clouded record of NHS beneficiaries so that hospitals can serve better.
Following benefits was expected from this project:
 All time and online availability of information for hospitals so the doctors can treat the
patient more effectively in an emergency.
 Healthcare professional can accesses accurate information any time about the viral
disease.
 The patient can see his medical test report at home with EPR (Electronic Patient Record)
system.
 It will help in resolving the issues that happen because of insufficient data.
The current report is made to describe the facts which are related to the failure of NHS IT
program. Due to various problems like lack inefficiency project management, project
implementation and stakeholder disagreement which contribute to the failure of the project, it
was closed by the democratic government in 2011 (O’Donnellan, 2016).
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Key issues
Project size: This project was introduced to support the NHS program to maintain online cloud
record of medical patients so that 40000 GP and 300 hospitals can use it to improve the services
under national health system. Research says that proper preparation was not done according to
the size of the project which was highly contributed to project failure.
Project size and cost: This project was introduced to support the NHS program to maintain
online cloud record of medical patients so that 40000 GP and 300 hospitals can use it to improve
the services under national health system. Research says that proper preparation was not done
according to the size of the project which was highly contributed to project failure. A very high
outflow was also expected from NHS project approx. ₤6 Billion and a high burden on taxpayers
was expected from the same. Taxpayers were not so happy with this scheme because due to this
scheme they have to bear an extra burden (Campion-Awwad, et. al., 2014). Additionally, the
benefits of the project were not so clear according to the cost. In this way, cost factor also
contributes to the failure of this project.
Lack of practical approach in planning: NHS’ it project was framed by the government and
the planning was also made at the cabinet level. The targets and aims of the project were
appreciative but on the board of practical execution, several discrepancies were found and the
junior level management team do not make any objection because of political imprecation.
Before the introduction of this Program, an additional system should be introduced to change the
basic structure of healthcare system (Murray, et. al., 2014). Civil employees tried to execute a
planned strategy which was made by the ministers and not appropriate in practical life. In this
way, IT program caused failed.
Political pressure: The NHS was the costly and expensive project which was putting the
unnecessary pressure on the taxpayers which gave the chance to opposition parties to speak
against the government in a rule saying why such schemes were introduced that were creating an
extra burden on Respected taxpayers. Due to the political pressure, the government was not
taking sufficient interest in this project and in this way political pressure was the big reason for
this project failure.
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