Milton Keynes’ Cerner implementation postponed

Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Trust has had to postpone its implementation of a new Cerner Millennium patient administration system at just three days notice, citing the need for more time to fix software glitches. The trust does not yet have a new go-live date.

The decision follows a similar last minute postponement of the project go live, which was meant to have occurred on the weekend of 14-15 August. EHI understands that staff had been rostered and booked leave around what was understood to be an absolutely firm date.

Milton Keynes took the decision to delay implementation on Wedenesday. A spokesperson for the trust told E-Health Insider: “During testing leading up to the original ‘go live’ date a small number of software problems were identified which have been corrected. To enable final testing to be fully completed the decision has been made to delay implementation and a firm decision on a ‘go live’ date will not be made until then.”

The delay at Milton Keynes raises doubts over whether Fujitsu can deliver on its stated objective of installing Cerner Millennium in ten more trusts by the end of the Calendar year.

In July Fujitsu told the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee that they would complete 12 installations of Release Zero of Millennium by the end of this month.

Of the twelve, two have since occurred – Weston and Mid Bucks – while the remaining ten trusts have told E-Health Insider they plan to go live with R0 by the end of the year.  The next in the queue was to have been Milton Keynes, by far the most complex installation of Millennium yet attempted in the South.

In total Fujitsu has so far delivered three installations of Cerner Millennium, with Nuffield Orthopaedic being the first trust to go live in December 2005.