30 Minute Interview

'We are Looking at Setting up a Research Programme in India'

Set up in 2002, BT Health, a part of British Telecom, is developing a $ 6.2 billion contract—for delivering a round-the-clock secure, electronic system for National Health Service (NHS). Known as the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), the programme will create a single, up-to-date electronic healthcare record for every patient in England. BT Health will provide solutions reaching to every care setting which will give each patient a care record, containing all their relevant and current healthcare information. Dr Patrick O'Connell, Managing Director of BT Health, responsible for end-to-end sector performance, including delivery of the NHS contracts, spoke to Rita Dutta about their plans for India

Dr Patrick O'Connell Managing Director of BT Health

What are your plans for India?

India is one of the key markets for BT Group. The company has already announced a string of growth plans for its Indian operations, predicting in September 2006 that its revenues from India will be $250 million by 2009. BT is looking to increase its Indian employee strength by hiring an
additional 6,000 people within the next two years and plans to add more resources to support its already substantial capabilities in outsourcing and systems integration services.

In collaboration with Oxford University, we are planning to launch the BT centre for major programme management which will eventually have a presence on the ground in the US and India as well as the UK. Oxford will provide the research specialists in a broad range of disciplines, whereas we will provide practitioner's skills. We are still in the process of deciding where to set up the research institute in India. It could be Mumbai.

The programme will lead to an MSc in Major Programme Management, to be launched in the autumn of 2008. The programme will deal with business aspects of running massive programmes like those we have been managing in the UK for the NHS. We are using these health contracts as a reference programme, but the principles are transferable to other business areas. Though there are many management institutes, right now, there is no institute in India—or indeed in the world—imparting end-to-end programme knowledge of large scale transformational healthcare programmes. The traditional tools and techniques of project management are not adequate due to the complex task of major programme management in large scale projects.

Who should go for this programme?

Leaders of the industry and leaders of the Government will learn how to organise themselves better to structure and deliver major programmes within the given budget and time. Generally, Government programmes of this scale—always overshoot time and budget.

Is the content for the research programme same in the three countries?

Initially, the programme will run in Oxford, but the objectives of the course would be the same.

Will it be a full-time programme?

It will be a full-time programme, however, it will be spread over time to allow people to take the course in conjunction with working hours. The duration of the programme will be determined once the syllabus is finalised.

What is the eligibility criterion for the programme?

Oxford's standard admission procedures for a Masters course will apply. One of the reasons we have chosen to partner with Oxford is that they attract a very high proportion of students from different countries around the world, including India, and we really want the centre to be making a global contribution.

Why does Indian healthcare industry need such a programme? Why is BT Health tapping India?

All global economies—including the public sector—need to operate efficiently and effectively. Indian industries are getting interested in delivering long-term infrastructure programmes within stipulated time and budget.

Besides, Oxford and BT have deep-rooted relationships with India, which we do not have with other Asian countries. Around 15,000 BT people are working in call centres in Delhi. We are also working closely with Mastek to develop softwares in healthcare.

As of now, BT Health has connected over 18,000 NHS sites. How has NPfIT improved patient care?

The programme for NHS is the largest civilian IT programme in the world. We were awarded the contract for connecting all NHS sites to the private network (known as N3) in February 2004 along with the local service provider contract for London and the contract to build the central patient record database, known as the 'Spine'. The service provides improved patient care, enables patients to move between care settings with more timely access to their information, make it easier for staff to be up-to-date with patient information, as well as reducing administration burdens and the possibility of medical errors.

It will make patient data available when it needs to be available. Prescriptions are being moved online and, subject to patient consent, eventually medical information could be viewed at the local hospital or GP anywhere in the UK.

This reduces chances of medical errors and rules out the possibility of patients/doctors losing hard copy of prescriptions. Similarly, X-ray films which generally take a week to be posted back from the hospital, are now being made digitally available within a few minutes, thus reducing patient's waiting time. Online booking with doctors has made it easier for patients to get appointments quickly, and at a convenient time.

With the NHS national programme for IT, 15 million electronic prescriptions have been transmitted online and three million online bookings with doctors have been made till date and the figures are growing substantially. We have connected 18,000 NHS sites in England, including hospitals and GP surgeries, two months ahead of schedule.

What are the challenges you faced while implementing NPfIT? How did you overcome the challenges?

Initially, the challenge was lack of expertise to manage the programmes of such enormous scale. However, despite getting off to a slow start, BT Health has been delivering to schedule since summer 2005.

To overcome the challenges presented, BT has upped its game considerably. The team has been strengthened, recruiting people from different continents with specialist skills and proven expertise in major programme management as well as the health sector. I, for example, have more than 36 years of experience as a buyer, user and builder of major systems of considerable cost and complexity.

The NPfIT organisation has been restructured in line with the traditional large programmes structure to enable us to deliver more effectively. We have also adopted gold standard programme and service management methodologies and we have deliberately worked very closely with both our customer and the end users to ensure successful implementation.

Are you planning to tap any other country with the same programme?

By 2008, we would have successfully delivered enough of the NHS IT programme to approach other countries for database, connectivity or IT upgrade business. By then, we will have success to show.

rita.dutta@expressindia.com