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Story: NHS IT project will face inquiry

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Why are academics involved in the NHS 'review?. Surely people who have spent 25 or more years at the IT 'coal face' would be more appropriate?
The cost of correction of faults in IT projects rises almost exponentially with the position in the development cycle, so mid/late-course corrections to the NHS project will be enormously expensive. If the system is basically flawed in design, this expenditure will have no effect on the outcome. The alternative is to backtrack to a point where the design flaw can be modfied and try again. This will probably consume half the country's GDP as well.
The other point is that if (as I read), the 'end users' didn't want it in the first place and if they don't want to use it now, the whole thing is doomed. I've seen perfectly executed IT projects which have failed because they either didn't deliver what the users wanted or they didn't want it in the first place.
My two penn'orth for what it's worth.

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