iSoft users flock to Emis

Three quarters of GPs that were using iSoft systems when CSC announced it was pulling support for the products have switched to Emis Web.

Around a quarter have chosen to move to TPP and small numbers have picked INPS and Microtest systems.

EHI revealed in September last year that CSC had decided to withdraw its iSoft products from the NHS primary care market.

Based on information held by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, 409 practices were still using iSoft systems at this time.

Since then: 296 have selected Emis Web; 95 practices have selected TPP; five have selected INPS; seven have selected Microtest; and six have closed or merged with another practice.

When it announced it was axeing its primary care line-up, CSC said it would provide support until at least 31 October 2013. EHI understands that support will run until the end of December and may be available until the end of March subject to agreement with the supplier. However, only five practices are yet to switch.

GP Systems of Choice programme manager at the HSCIC, Kemi Adenubi, said that switching systems is a massive change in business terms and GPs fear the amount of time it will take to bed back down with the new system.

“That makes it a slow market unless a supplier performs particularly poorly or is doing something new like rolling out a new system.”

However, she said it is interesting to see the reaction of practices which transition to new systems and see the benefits. Some iSoft users, many of whom were super-users of the system, are very happy with their new systems, Adenubi added.

Chair of the iSoft user group, Dr John Lockley, said: “quite which system our members chose to move to depended upon not only their personal preferences, but also on which of the various systems was in the majority in their own CCG.

“Many iSUG members said that they chose Emis because of their continuing ability to access BMJ-Informatica’s Contract+ and FrontDesk, and because they felt that its interface more closely matched what they had previously experienced with Synergy and Premiere.

“I suspect that all our members will have found the move stressful to some degree, whichever system they moved to – but this is always the case when moving to a new system.”