The UK NHS director-general of IT Richard Granger, announced his resignation late last week. Granger, who has lead what is called the largest non-defense IT project in the world for almost five years, cited his desire to return to the private sector.
Granger has been a controversial figure during his Connecting for Health tenure, and the results decidedly mixed. Granger, who did not like criticism, late last year tried to suppress a critical report by the British Computer Society on the implementation of the electronic medical record program, which has seen costs increase dramatically over the past several years. Recently, it was reported that while addressing an IT conference in London, Granger said: "I think with a bit less whingeing and more support we might have got the programme done quicker."
It is a bit early to tell whether Granger's departure will have any significant impact on the roll-out of electronic health records, which is scheduled to begin in earnest next year with every patient in England supposedly having a Summary Care Record by the end of 2008. I suspect that once he departs, there will be a re-examination of the overall strategy, some Granger vehemently opposed, but which the overall record shows, is sorely needed.
