Derby chooses Lorenzo

Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has decided to take CSC’s Lorenzo under the Department of Health’s new interim agreement with the company.

The trust is awaiting central approval for its business case to take the electronic patient record system.

EHI understands the decision was made at the trust’s board meeting last Tuesday.

The trust could not confirm what happened at the board meeting, but issued a statement saying: "We have submitted a case (to NHS Connecting for Health) and are having ongoing discussions about Lorenzo. We don’t yet know if the investment case has been approved."

Derby put its patient administration system procurement “on hold” last year while it assessed the Lorenzo offer.

A trust spokesperson said at the time: “There are a number of potential financial and strategic advantages in taking this option that the trust needs to seriously consider and hence has paused the PAS procurement pending a full evaluation.”

Trusts wishing to take Lorenzo can get central support and funding for up to five years from implementation if they can develop a “robust business case” that is approved by the DH.

EHI exclusively revealed last year that the first ten trusts that commit to take the EPR before the end of this financial year will also receive a signing-on bonus of £1m for implementation expenses.

Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust have already confirmed their intention to implement the system and are awaiting business case approval.

At least two further trusts are due to make decisions regarding Lorenzo before the March cut-off date.

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, which had told suppliers taking part in its PAS procurement that it was considering the CSC deal, said the trust board would consider its options at a meeting today (29 January).

Walsall Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust will decide which system to buy in March. The trust’s PAS procurement is on hold.

EHI understands that NME trusts were advised by the DH not to talk about potential Lorenzo deployments until after the March deadline. This was allegedly related to reports in the media of a fresh probe into the CSC deal by the Public Accounts Committee.

However, a DH spokesman said there was no central directive and it was up to individual trusts whether to discuss their plans.

A spokesman for the PAC said the committee had no plans “as yet” to investigate the matter, but it had been “receiving correspondence on the matter”.