Last week we drafted a report on the benefits of the introduction into prison of the computer based patient management system. We looked at what we had achieved in the roll-out across the West Midlands, what we had spent on the roll-out and the benefits we had identified.

There has been a lot of negative comments about the NHS computerisation of records and patient management. Our report potentially bucks this trend.

We have estimated that for five of our 12 prisons, the NHS has reduced the equivalent of £148,000 a year of staff time spent on administration.

In prison nursing, the introduction of the computer based system, has improved the management of clinics, reduced the amount of paperwork that nurses have had to complete and supported the sharing of information between prisons as prisoners are moved between sites.

We are not suggesting that we have saved the NHS the equivalent staffing, more that we have been able to divert staff time used in administration to front line patient care.

If we were to extrapolate the figures, this could deliver savings of £439,000 across all West Midlands Prison healthcare centres and extrapolated across all prisons in England and Wales this could equate to £5.1 million.

Our estimates are based on reductions in staff time spent on administration, freeing up time for more clinics, for more patient face to face contact and a reduction in prescribing practices as information is now held in one central IT record, rather than paper based.

Demonstrating the benefits is going to be critical, while some talk about the NHS being free from budget cuts, we expect no inflation rise next year, we are being asked to focus more on front-line services.

Currently, just over 12 months into implementation in the region, the IT system, appears to be supporting this.

We'll upload the full document as soon as we have gone through the final checks.