NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) is confident that PACS would not have been deployed nearly so quickly without the involvement of the national PACS programme. For instance, a readiness survey of all English acute trusts in 2003 revealed that:

• 50 trusts had a PACS of some form at that time. Many, however, only had PACS in their radiology departments and were looking for ways to progress to site- and enterprise-wide PACS. (Of these 50 trusts, 18 moved to the solutions provided under the national PACS programme).
• Of the trusts that did not have any form of PACS, only 30% had business cases and plans in place to implement them.
• About half of all trusts had either no plans or only vague plans, longer-term strategic plans or business case issues. Some were unable to provide information.

The picture in 2003 was therefore very patchy, with no real momentum on a national basis to deploy PACS. When the national PACS programme began NHS CFH worked closely with the strategic health authorities, individual trusts and IT service providers to ensure that trusts were able to benefit from film-less working as quickly as possible.

In particular, NHS CFH:

• deployed the necessary headcount to drive PACS forward nationally, all within a structured programme management framework.
• secured contracts with local service providers (LSPs) at competitive, market-driven prices. The LSPs are contractually bound to provide PACS equipment and services which are guaranteed to meet high service levels and which are of a comparably high standard across the NHS.
• secured on-going clinical engagement. The programme has worked closely with the relevant professional bodies including the Royal College of Radiologists and Society of Radiographers, while a large number of clinicians have important roles within the programme's management structure.
• liaised with the LSPs and PACS suppliers to ensure that they have worked at full capacity and within a well-planned delivery schedule. This enabled PACS to be delivered within highly challenging timescales. It has also prevented the possibility of suppliers being pulled in different directions in order to meet competing demands from trusts.
• ensured a coordinated and consistent approach to issues such as safety, service management, contracts management, at the same time as identifying and sharing lessons learned.
• and ensured that the approach to PACS has supported the strategy for developing diagnostic imaging services in the NHS and wider goals such as the delivery of a maximum 18-week wait from referral to start of treatment.

The national roll-out of PACS - involving a total of 127 PACS deployments - was complete by the end of 2007. This three-year roll-out contrasted very favourably with the 14 years taken to implement those PACS which pre-dated the programme.

As a result of the national PACS programme, there is now also a good foundation for progressing important developments such as improved sharing of images and reports across trusts and regions, links with independent sector healthcare providers and the extension of PACS into further clinical specialties.

These achievements have been widely recognised by clinicians, professional bodies and industry commentators. This was reflected in the programme receiving two awards in quick succession in December 2007.

The first of these - 'Public Sector Project of the Year' in Computing magazine's 'Awards of Excellence' – recognised the programme's success in having 'delivered major improvements in public services or new ways of working that have enabled greater efficiency or cost-effectiveness'. The programme then went on to win the 'Healthcare IT Award' at the Health Business Awards.