Surrey and Sussex go live with Millennium

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has become the latest trust in the Southern cluster to go-live with Cerner’s Millennium Release 0 patient administration system, delivered by local service provider Fujitsu.

The trust went live with the system trust-wide on the evening of Friday 20 April, at the same time as local service provider Computer Sciences Corporation was deploying iSoft iPM PAS’s in Ipswich and Northampton.

The trust, which employs 2500 staff and has a budget of around £167m, announced: “Within 15 minutes of going live the first new baby details were successfully put onto the new system and within 24 hours the trust’s emergency department was electronically capturing activity as it happened.

“The introduction of this new integrated clinical system is a key step forward in the programme of changes underway to improve how information is used and transferred across the NHS.”

The Millennium PAS includes modules for the emergency department, maternity department and the operating theatres.

Chief executive, Gail Wannell, said: “This is an extremely important project for us and central to our plans to modernise local health services. The dedication, hard work and support of staff in preparation for, and then go live, has been outstanding.

“Consequently we have made good progress since the go live a week ago. Although we are still in the early days of deployment, it is already clear that NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS) will be a valuable tool in helping us improve the way we manage patients’ treatment.”

The system is now live at the East Surrey Hospital (including the walk-in centre), BUPA Redwood Diagnosis and Treatment Centre, Crawley Hospital (including the urgent treatment centre), Dorking Hospital, Horsham Hospital (including the minor injuries unit), Caterham Dene Hospital, Lingfield Health Centre, Merstham Health Centre, Oxted Health Centre and the Oxted Therapies Unit.

Irene Scott, the trust’s director of nursing said, “Our clinical staff will benefit hugely from access to more comprehensive, up-to date patient information and a fast, safe and reliable means of recording information. NHS CRS will help us provide a more efficient service and better healthcare for our patients.”

The trust added: “The implementation of this system marks the completion of the first phase of the NHS CRS Project.”

The project was supported by local information management and technology provider Surrey Health Informatics Service.