First UK Cambio implementation canned

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust and Cambio Healthcare Systems have canned the implementation of a trust-wide hospital information system.

The deal was the Swedish company’s first major contract with the NHS when it was secured in September 2010.

At the time, the trust said it could no longer wait for Lorenzo, the ‘strategic’ solution that it should have received from the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

It urgently needed to replace its 20 year-old iSoft Clinicom patient administration system, while providing A&E and e-prescribing functionality.

However, the trust now says a greater emphasis on integration and sharing patient information means it needs to review its options.

In a joint statement to eHealth Insider, the trust and company have confirmed that the contract to deploy the Cosmic system has been cancelled.

The statement says they have completed the assessment and specification stage of the project, but have “mutually agreed not to progress with the implementation phase of the project.”

“With the passage of time, changes included in the national programme, the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and the latest NHS information strategy have meant that there is now a much greater emphasis on integration and sharing of information and resources across health and social care providers,” the statement says.

“As a result of this, it is now appropriate for [the trust] to carefully factor these changes into its plans to ensure that all options are reviewed to best deliver its vision of providing the best healthcare for the patients of Wigan through the use of technology.”

When the contract was finalised in 2010, the head of IM&T at the trust, Stephen Dobson, told EHI that Cambio was chosen because it was a “very innovative company and provide a platform that is good for integration."

In the joint statement, the trust said it had gained a “greater depth of understanding of the processes involved and cost efficiencies to be gleaned from such a system”, having gone through the project to the stage it did.

Meanwhile, Cambio had a great opportunity to “expand its understanding of health information systems requirements for the NHS in England, which it will apply as it continues to enhance its integrated, module-based solutions for UK acute and community sectors.”