The major IT support roles for the NHS will be moved from NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) to the Department of Health after a major restructuring by the government.

Although it loses its control over the technology side of the NHS, the CfH will become a policy and strategy-based organisation which will report directly to Christine Connelly, the chief information officer for health.

The major restructuring changes will come into effect on April 6th.

Speaking to E-Health Insider, a senior NHS IT professional said that the restructure showed a particularly notable shift in power and resources in the organisation.

The source added: "The implication of this to me is that both the informatics architecture and the financing for that is moving back into the control of the NHS."

NHS Connecting for Health was established by the government on April 1st 2005 and is the directorate of the Department of Health, with aims to deliver safer and better care to patients through technological guidance.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.