EMIS wins £1.8m Cheshire sharing deal

EMIS has announced it has won a contract with an initial value of £1.8m to deliver a shared care record for primary healthcare teams across Cheshire, using EMIS Web.

The healthcare IT supplier said the pan-Cheshire initiative will be a major implementation of EMIS Web outside GP surgeries, with 933 EMIS Web access points installed in acute trusts, mental health facilities, clinics and some community settings.

The access points will allow the whole primary healthcare team, including community nurses, district nurses and physiotherapists to record their own patient interventions in EMIS Web.

It will then enable clinicians across primary and second care to view relevant information from the GP record, subject to patient consent and locally agreed data sharing protocols. The shared record will also be extended to include non-EMIS practices.

Julie Murdy, acting head of ICT projects for Cheshire ICT Service, said: “This will allow our primary and secondary care clinicians to access vital information about their patients’ health, and for the whole team to work together to provide joined up care to patients.”

The contract has been signed by Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust on behalf of the eight organisations in Cheshire, including PCTs, NHS foundation trusts and community health organisations.

EMIS said the contract, together with systems supplied under GP Systems of Choice, will mean EMIS Web will become the main clinical information system for approximately 4,000 GPs and community staff in Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT and NHS Western Cheshire.

Sean Riddell, chief executive of EMIS group, said it was an exciting contract win for the company because it would realise the full potential of EMIS Web as a system for the whole healthcare team.

He added: “While other parts of the country are already using EMIS Web to link up different healthcare teams, the Cheshire project will be our biggest healthcare community installation to date.”