George Eliot to take Lorenzo

George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust is due to take the Lorenzo electronic patient record system under an interim agreement between CSC and the Department of Health.

The trust is the fifth to confirm it wants to deploy the EPR under the deal, which will give the first ten trusts in the North, Midlands and East that commit to taking the system by the end of March a signing-on bonus of £1m for implementation expenses.

Trusts will also get up to £4m for deployment and training costs.

A report from George Eliot’s chief executive, presented to the trust board at its February meeting, says the trust plans to take Lorenzo.

“The George Eliot is currently working with Connecting for Health and CSC to implement a new suite of clinical IT systems,” it says.

“This is extremely good news for the trust as it will enable us to upgrade most of our clinical systems and provide external financial support to allow us to do so, for the benefit of patient care.”

Under the Freedom of Information Act, EHI requested all documents relating to procurement, or potential procurement of an EPR or a patient administration system by the trust, but was told by a spokesperson:

“I can confirm that the trust currently holds no documents relating to the procurement or potential procurement of an electronic patient record system.”

When asked for a clarification, the trust spokesperson told EHI: “The trust is not in the process of procuring an electronic patient record system. The procurement is being led by the DH.”

Sensitivity has surrounded the interim deal that the government signed with CSC since it was announced last September.

EHI understands that NME trusts were advised by the DH not to talk about potential Lorenzo deployments until after the March deadline.

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

NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson was due to face questions on Monday from the Public Accounts Committee about the end of the National Programme for IT in the NHS and the incentive payments to trusts that take Lorenzo.

However, the vote on the government’s response to the Leveson inquiry into the press cut the session short.

According to EHI Intelligence, George Eliot uses iSoft’s iPM PAS which was delivered to trusts in the NME under NPfIT. iSoft was bought by CSC in 2011.

Four trusts have already confirmed their intention to take Lorenzo; Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust; Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust; and Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Tameside, Ipswich and Derby have all submitted business cases to Connecting for Health.

Hull and East Yorkshire is planning to take its full business case to the trust board in this month. Subject to trust board approval, it will then seek formal approval from the DH to proceed with the Lorenzo deployment.

Another trust considering taking Lorenzo, Walsall Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, will decide which system to deploy on 28 March.