South Warks eighth Lorenzo trust

South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust is looking at taking CSC’s Lorenzo electronic patient record system under the interim agreement signed between the Department of Health and the company.

The trust is waiting to take its business case for the system to the North, Midlands and East Programme Board.

If approved, the trust will be the eighth to take the system under the interim agreement, which gives trusts central funding for deployment and service costs.

A report from the trust’s director of operations to the April board meeting confirms the trust’s intention to take the system.

“The trust has successfully entered the Lorenzo Regional Care engagement phase," it says. 

"Successful achievement of the Lorenzo investment case three milestone will also release incentive funding from the supplier (CSC) as the trust is one of the first ten [to take the system under the interim agreement], it adds.

CSC was the local service provider for the NME as part of NPfIT. As such, it was contracted to deliver iSoft’s Lorenzo to healthcare economies across three fifths of the NHS.

However, the development and deployment of Lorenzo was severely delayed, with just a handful of ‘early adopters’ now live.

The interim agreement was signed after the government announced that it was scrapping NPfIT, so that trusts that still wanted the system could access it.

EHI understands that the trust will keep its options open until a business case has been approved.

In a statement to EHI, a trust spokesperson said: "The trust has started a pre-implementation piece of work to assess the suitability of Lorenzo for the organisation.

“At this point there has been no commitment to proceed with the implementation of Lorenzo and a business case will be presented at a future board."

The system will replace the trust’s iSoft patient administration system, which the trust received under NPfIT. The trust also runs the Kainos Evolve electronic document management system.

The report to the board suggests it is particularly interested in Lorenzo’s community functionality, although it is reviewing other options.

Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust and The George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust have had business cases approved by the NME Programme Board to take Lorenzo.

Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust have also confirmed their intention to take the system.