Some NPfIT PAS systems barely used

A number of Connecting for Health funded patient administration systems (PAS), installed in primary care and community trusts, are only being used by a small number of staff, according to official figures seen by EHI Primary Care.

Internal figures, prepared by local service provider (LSP) CSC Alliance, show an average number of monthly users of just one for North Staffordshire, less than 20 for Cambridgeshire PCT and Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire health community, and less than 50 for Dudley, Fylde Coast and North Cheshire.

Usage figures for PAS systems in the North, Midlands and East Programme for IT show that, in several cases, less than 20 staff are using the CfH supplied PAS system each month.

However, some of the LSPs figures are disputed by the trusts themselves. Dudley PCT produced figures for EHI Primary Care which showed 220 average users out of 400 staff and North Staffs claimed 350 staff were currently using the system and that numbers would rise to 1000 next year, out of a total of 2,000 staff.

Andrew Spence, director of healthcare services for CSC, said the LSP strategy for PAS deployments to PCTs was to begin with low numbers of staff and build up.

He told EHI Primary Care: “Initially we start with a small number of users who perhaps don’t have access to another system and then over time further cohorts are added which is by and large the way trusts want to do it as well.”

Spence admitted that North Staffs “sticks out like a sore thumb” but said the trust had plans in place to expand use of its PAS over the next nine months.

He added: “In November it plans to add 300 to 400 users and then go up to 600 or 800 in spring next year.”

Spence said CSC’s contract with Connecting for Health meant it was paid more according to how many staff were using the system and growth plans were agreed in consultation with trusts.

“The bottom line is that there are volumetric targets so essentially we do get paid more if more users adopt the systems.”

Spence estimated that CSC had installed new patient administration systems in three quarters of PCTs in the old North West / West Midlands cluster and said much lower numbers had been installed in the North East and Eastern clusters formerly run by Accenture, whose strategy had been to focus on TPP’s SystmOne products.

Spence said PCTs were not under pressure to take new PAS systems from CSC.

He added: “CSC’s approach is that we only want to deploy systems when trusts want to take them. If they have got existing systems that they are happy with then that is fine.”

Dudley PCT, which has had a PAS system from CSC since October 2005, showed EHI Primary Care figures which showed an average weekly use of 229 staff between January and April this year. The official CSC figures seen by EHI Primary Care reported less than 50 users.

A spokesperson said: “In Dudley we have trained many administrative support staff to be proficient in entering data on behalf of the nurses and community staff, and in most cases they will be entering for the whole team, so whilst the number of logins is lower than the 400 registered users we are confident that this is in the main due to this factor.”

A spokesman for North Staffordshire Community Health Trust told EHI Primary Care that the trust was half way through implementing its PAS from CSC, with 350 people currently using the system. He said the potential number of users should reach 1000 by April next year.

The spokesperson added: “We expect to realise the benefits as stated by Connecting for Health. It is too early to express an opinion about the experience so far.” 

CSC is responsible for delivering new IT systems to three-fifths of the English NHS. Latest CfH figures report that it has installed 99 NPfIT versions of iSoft’s iPM PAS system, mostly in its original North West and West Midlands cluster. The majority of the systems have been installed in PCTs, community and mental health trusts.

www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/newsroom/latest/yourarea/nwwmids

www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/newsroom/latest/yourarea/northeast

www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/newsroom/latest/yourarea/eastern

Across all PCTs and NHS trusts served by CSC the LSP’s ‘production usage’ figures showed that in December an average of 3,300 NHS staff were using the PAS systems it had supplied. EHI understands the usage figures had risen to a monthly average of about 6,500 by early summer 2007.