For Dr Marcus Baw, co-founder of the NHoS project it was the final straw, he blogged “We’ve finally reached a point where we’ve had enough.”
Dr Baw continued: “The entire NHSbuntu/ NHoS team consists of four core members who have been working as volunteers, with a few small work packages and pieces of funding courtesy of the Apperta Foundation (a Community Interest Company set up to provide seed funding for NHS open source initiatives).”
He argued that the legal challenges would never have happened had NHS England or NHS Digital provided any support for the initiative.
“But we have received absolutely zero backing from those higher up in NHS Digital and other NHS bodies, – despite significant interest from grass-roots CIOs and NHS tech implementers, who welcome the range of possibilities that an open source NHS-warranted Spine environment would provide them.”
Dr Baw added: “The NHS will just have to solve its own terminal addition and lock-in to Microsoft. One day we may re-initiate the project, when we have some people backing us at high level who actually believe in the project’s aim and aren’t using it as leverage to hep them get their political ends.”
In a parting shot Dr Baw concluded his blog post: “You hear a lot about innovation in the NHS, but if this is the way innovators are treated – and with the full might of DH Legal against an unfunded volunteer organisation – then you can see why we have no actual innovation…”
Archive.org: Volunteer-led NHoS project ending after legal challenge