On Wed, 27 Oct 2004, Tim Churches wrote: > From: Andrew Ho [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Just because NHS got off the fence and gave money to > > proprietary vendors this time, it does not mean they won't > > make a different decision next time. > > I suspect that "next time" will be at least a decade hence, given the scale > of investment and the long-term nature of the contracts which the NHS is now > entering into.
Tim, A decade to establish an infrastructure that can continue to be used for several hundred years is not bad at all. As UK NHS deploys its new proprietary system, we will continue to learn from this experience and mature our open source / free systems. Some governments (e.g. Brazil) have already announced funding for open source health software project. Who knows, with consultants like Joseph and Colin, it may take less than ten years for the UK NHS to change direction. Best regards, Andrew --- Andrew P. Ho, M.D. OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes www.TxOutcome.Org
