The Public Accounts Committee report published today is highly critical of the £12bn programme and casts doubt on its success.

The Department of Health response is that it is a skewed view based on out of date evidence and the testimony of those with an axe to grind.

As usual there is almost no way of forming a coherent picture of the programme's progress. Some things are going well (ish), some are going badly, some are not going at all. But the reality is that there is no choice but to pursue a modernisation programme, and, now we are so far along this particular path, a few years' delay cannot be enough to put the whole  in jeopardy.

All these fireworks are just a sideshow.