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The Conservative Party has argued that government IT projects should be handled by companies like Google or Microsoft, instead of Labour friendly outsourcers.
The proposal entails using services like Google Health or Microsoft Healthvault as alternatives to the £12 billion national patient record database, which has been ordered by the government but has yet to be implemented.
According to the Guardian, the Tories estimate that around half of the £1.65 billion spent on IT annually could be halved.
“Today you don’t need a massive central computer to do this,” said Tory leader David Cameron at the Conservative conference in Cheltenham. “People can store their health records securely online; they can show them to whichever doctor they want. They’re in control, not the state.
“In this age of austerity, a web-based version of the government’s bureaucratic scheme services – like Google Health or Microsoft HealthVault – costs virtually nothing to run.”
