Walsall Healthcare becomes second UK trust to ditch Lorenzo

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust has gone live with its new electronic patient record system from System C, becoming the second UK trust to move away from DXC Lorenzo.

The trust is now fully operational with integrated clinical, administrative and business intelligence systems at its acute hospital, in emergency care and across its community services.

System C’s CareFlow’s contact management functionality is also being used to manage clinical workflows both within the hospital and in the community. The trust has also integrated a new theatre management system from Bluespier, System C’s theatres partner, as a replacement for its legacy Ormis system.

The deployment itself was conducted largely remotely, with progress relayed live over Twitter during the critical go-live weekend when data was transferred and legacy systems were turned off.

Daren Fradgley, director of integration and deputy chief executive at the trust, said: “Replacing an Electronic Patient Record is a major programme of work impacting all of our clinical processes.  We are delighted that the transition has happened so smoothly.

“The feedback from users has been really positive and that is a tribute to the genuine partnership between Walsall and System C.”

Walsall is the second trust in the UK to replace the Lorenzo system bought as part of the National Programme for IT. It follows Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which also selected System C as its strategic partner.

Barnsley and Walsall have collaborated together over the past year, and around 17 Barnsley staff travelled to Walsall to help colleagues and be on hand over the go-live weekend.

Ian Denley, joint chief executive of System C, added: “Working with Walsall has been tremendous.  From the very beginning, the level of engagement within the organisation was outstanding, and we have always encouraged our users to work together and share learning and experience, so we were particularly delighted that Barnsley and Walsall were so supportive of each other.”