Mike O'Brien becomes NHS IT minister

A former ecommerce minister has been given responsibility for NHS IT, as one of the Department of Health's two ministers of state

Mike O'Brien, MP for Warwickshire North, has been appointed as minister of state for health services, where his brief includes Connecting for Health and NHS IT.

He will also cover other areas relating to NHS efficiency, procurement and property management, including Private Finance Initiative and Local Improvement Finance Trusts (Lift).

O'Brien was previously minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Between September 2004 and May 2005, while at the Department of Trade and Industry, he was minister for ecommerce.

O'Brien has taken the job as part of the reshuffle that saw Ben Bradshaw, who previously acted in the role, promoted to the Cabinet to become culture secretary.

This article was originally published at Kable.

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