SLHT sticks with Cerner go-live

South London Healthcare NHS Trust says its planned go-live with Cerner Millennium this month will not be affected by the trust’s administrator recommending that it should be broken up.

Draft recommendations on resolving financial problems at the trust were delivered to the health secretary this week.

Matthew Kershaw was appointed trust special administrator in July because the trust was losing around £1.3m a week.

He has recommended that the trust be broken up and that the government should write off its debts, expected to reach £207m by March.

A trust spokesperson said the administrator’s report will not affect its deployment of Cerner’s electronic patient record system.

“The upgrade and new systems are required for the hospitals regardless of any future changes to the organisational make-up of the hospitals,” he said.

The trust confirmed to eHealth Insider in September that the first phase of the implementation would start this November.

The installation will be carried out by London local service provider BT in partnership with Cerner, and will build on a deployment at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup back in November 2007.

Queen Mary’s merged with Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, and Princess Royal hospital in Bromley to form South London Healthcare NHS Trust in 2009.

Kershaw gives a series of recommendations for how it should now be split up again.

He suggests that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital site should join with Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust to create a “new organisation focused on the provision of care for the communities of Greenwich and Lewisham.”

Lewisham recently confirmed Cerner as the preferred supplier of its new electronic patient record system.

A spokeman for Lewisham told EHI the uncertaintly regarding the future of SLHT has not delayed its own EPR programme.

Kershaw said the financial problems at South London Healthcare are so significant that “radical action” is needed.

“The current situation is unsustainable and patients want and need reassurance about their local NHS,” he said.

A period of consultation on the recommendations begins today and ends on 13 December. A report with final recommendations will be delivered to the health secreatary on 7 January, 2013.