A year in review: LSPs in 2007

South of England – Fujitsu

Reflecting on the past 12-months as local service provider in the South of England, Fujitsu’s public sector boss Peter Hutchinson, charts the highs and lows of the year, and sets out the shape of things to come in 2008.

With Fujitsu locked in an ongoing contract ‘reset’, Hutchinson said he was unable to give details of planned new arrangements on locally determined delivery and prioritisation, but was resolutely upbeat about prospects for 2008 and stressed Fujitsu’s long-term commitment to the programme.

“Fujitsu started 2007 strongly finishing the roll-out of PACS in March, which helped make us a lot of friends,” Peter Hutchinson, head of Fujitsu UK’s public sector team, told EHI. All PACS installations (using GE and HSS) in the South are now linked into a central data store “the full strategic solution”, adds Hutchinson.

He said that for the remainder of the year the LSP has been working away at the Care Records Service (CRS) project. “We’re talking about the principal Cerner Millennium product, acute systems and a bit into primary care and walk-in centres.”

It was a year of mixed fortunes on CRS delivery in which the LSP and its sub-contractor Cerner were singled out for public criticism by Connecting for Health boss Richard Granger, after problems emerged at Milton Keynes. Hutchinson says lessons have been learned and the LSP is getting better.

He told EHI that in 2007 five implementations of Millennium have been delivered. Asked how the year’s implementations went, Hutchinson said: “Fine, four have gone very well and one [Milton Keynes] has caused some adverse reaction.”

The Fujitsu boss said lessons had learned from the experience at Milton Keynes. “We’re getting a lot better at this… It’s not easy for trusts to change their biggest and most important system, but we are getting better and the product is improving.” Hutchinson said Fujitsu was currently in the middle of receiving a series of product improvements from Cerner.

The fifth implementation of the year was at Taunton hospital in Western Somerset, which went live ahead of Christmas. “It’s very early days but the system is now in and running.”

The software installed at Taunton ‘version 704’ is the first version of Millennium to include directly bookable Chose and Book. Hutchinson says that this enhanced version of Millennium will be made available to all trusts “in due course”.

In total since becoming LSP in 2005 Fujitsu has now installed the Millennium software at eight sites, which according to the LSP accounts for about 20% of acute trusts in the South.

The LSP’s top man declined however to put a number on how many implementations it will deliver in 2008. “I’m older and wiser after being on this for four years. I’ve given up predicting what trusts will go live when, it’s primarily their decision.”

Hutchinson pointed out that Fujitsu and partners also delivered outside the acute sector in 2007, including three child health systems.

Much more is promised – including ambulance systems, Pathology, GP solution and Map of Medicine – following the completion of ongoing contract renegotiations. “We’ve got quite a lot of lined up but they are dependent on the contract reset.”

The reset underway was about “bridging the gap between the agreed project, as designed, and what trusts need,” said Hutchinson. Following the NHS Local Ownership Programme (NLOP) he said there is now far more involvement in negotiations and priority setting by trusts and SHAs.

“Detailed design of functionality will be delivered will be done with NHS trusts,” said the Fujitsu boss.

He told EHI 2007 had been the year Fujitsu began to be able to better connect with the NHS. “It has been the year we have been able to engage with the NHS at large… We always said that we intended to be in this for the long term.”

He added: “I wish we’d been able to move together a little more quickly, but it is very challenging and we are getting there.”

North, East and Midlands – CSC

Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), the LSP for the North East and Midlands, were unable to offer anyone for interview but instead provided a statement:

“As 2007 began, CSC stepped up to the challenge of delivering the NHS Care Records Service in the LSPs formerly under Accenture’s remit. This increased our delivery to 60 per cent of England. It was a challenging time for us as we worked in partnership with the new SHAs and NHS CFH to ensure that we delivered the first iPM in the new territory on time and on budget. EHI recorded this milestone as we delivered this project within 22 weeks.

“It was a year of continuous change for both the CSC Alliance and for the NHS. As deployments continued to be delivered, we saw the success of IBA’s bid for iSoft conclude after a long bidding process, we saw changes at ministerial levels as a result of the general election and changes in protocol and approach as NLOP became a reality.

“Through these changes, CSC Alliance continued to deliver substantial number of deployments which – for example – saw us reach 30 theatre implementations; our 15th Acute PAS, over 700 GP systems and, on 10 December, we completed all of the 37 North West and West Midlands PACS deployments under our contract.

“These interim solutions are bringing real benefits to the NHS and early demonstrations of the capability of the new Lorenzo product – which will deliver a truly integrated healthcare solution – have received positive feedback from NHS managers and clinicians alike. A number of early adopters, Morecambe Bay, Bradford & Airedale and South Birmingham have been working with CSC on the first release of Lorenzo.

“2008 will be both an exciting and challenging year as the first delivery of Lorenzo becomes a reality. We are currently under discussions with NHS CFH on the new Lorenzo delivery model and these will conclude early in the New Year. CSC and its partners in the CSC Alliance are looking forward to the challenges that 2008 will undoubtedly bring, but most of all, we are anticipating the roll-out the new Lorenzo product in earnest.”

London – BT

BT the LSP for London, which during the course of 2007 delivered two Cerner Millennium systems – Barnet and Chase Farm and Queen Mary’s Sidcup – also provided a statement.

“2007 has seen the NHS London Programme for IT achieve some notable successes towards the roll-out of the NHS Care Records Service.

“There has been a gathering of momentum towards the NHS Care Records Service in London created by a broad spread of progress across all care settings. This has led to increased confidence with IT upgrades in NHS trusts across the capital becoming ever more reliable and consistent. In total this year, BT carried out 66 deployments in London.”

The LSP said that in spring it completed its roll-out of PACS to 21 London trusts. The LSP added: “BT hit another significant milestone when it completed 60 percent of RiO deployments in the mental health sector. In addition, in Community Health it has now deployed new systems to more than 50 percent of London Primary Care Trusts.”

In addition the LSP installed its second electronic single assessment process (eSAP) at Kensington Chelsea and Westminster.

Jon Hoeksma