QIPP focus for Yorks and Humber IT

More than 50% of GP practices in NHS Yorkshire and the Humber will be on TPP’s SystmOne by the end of the financial year.

But delivery of the Lorenzo electronic patient record remains a significant risk, according to a board paper presented to the strategic health authority.

IT plans outlined in the report to this month’s board say "progress has been excellent” on the deployment of SystmOne, but there are still concerns that a fit for purpose Lorenzo will not be delivered or will be significantly delayed.

The paper also says the North, Midlands and East clusters of the National Programme for IT in the NHS are a top priority for Christine Connelly, head of the Department of Health’s Informatics Directorate.

Report author Phil Molyneux, the SHA’s chief information officer, says the NHS’ renegotiated contract with local service provider CSC has given it two strategic solutions- Lorenzo and SystmOne.

He says SystmOne will be fully integrated into Lorenzo and that Lorenzo Releases 3 and 4 will include primary and community functionality.

His report says: “The new contract means the NHS in Yorkshire and the Humber will be able to build on the investment that has already been made in TPP SystmOne in this region, for the duration of the contract.”

At the same time, he says the new contract “means that the NHS in Yorkshire and the Humber has already made significant progress towards achieving an integrated patient record.”

However, the report says there is a risk that a fit for purpose Lorenzo will not be delivered, which could result in trusts suffering a planning blight, benefits not being delivered and significant financial savings not being made.

It adds: “The [NPfIT] programme team continues to work with trusts to mitigate the impact of any further delay.”

The report says Lorenzo Release 1 is live on a limited basis in Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and that Release 1.9, which contains patient administration system functionality, is about to go live in three organisations outside the SHA.

Meanwhile, all 14 primary care trusts have TPP SystmOne as a community solution and 13 out of 14 PCTs have SystmOne as their child health solution with the 14th due to go live by August.

All prisons are expected to be live with SystmOne by October and 410 practices, more than 50% of the SHA’s total, will be live by the end of the financial year.

Against this background, the SHA’s NPfIT programme has identified five key areas to focus on.

Number one is supporting the Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) initiative, which is identified in another board paper as a key priority for the authority.

That paper says technology can help to deliver QIPP through extended use of the NHS Care Records Service to enable information sharing and greater integration of care, the development of mobile solutions for NHS staff, telemedicine and teleconferencing.

The other four target areas are to establish a long term conditions and telehealth care programme, to roll-out the SystmOne Community module so it is used by 70% of community staff, to deploy the Summary Care Record and Release 2 of the Electronic Prescription Service and to enable access to SystmOne in all accident and emergency departments.

The report from Molyneux says SystmOne is already being deployed in secondary care organisations, giving access to a shared record to allied health professionals, and community staff such as health visitors, as well as A&E departments.