Threatened trust implements new IT

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with its Medway electronic patient record system.

The trust was put into special administration by foundation trust regulator Monitor in April, and the administrators from Ernst and Young recommended dismantling it.

Despite this, the trust has gone ahead with its EPR deployment from System C, a McKesson Company.

Gill Baker, the trust’s associate director of IM&T said it had been a successful go-live. “The migration of around 15m records from our previous patient administration system was conducted over night from a Friday to a Saturday,” she said.

“All wards went ‘live’ Saturday evening and the outpatients department followed on Monday, 30 September. There was no reduction in hospital activity over this period.”

Mid Staffs has implemented a patient administration system, a master patient index, inpatients, outpatients, case note tracking and results reporting.

Dr John Hawkins, a Mid Staffs clinician, said staffs were “delighted to have the new system.” “We have carried out all the training and I and my colleagues are looking forward to using it on a day-to-day basis,” he said.

“This new system will benefit patients because it will capture information about their whole journey within our organisation, which means that doctors, nurses and support staff will have access to all their information in one place, helping us to make the right decisions about the best care.”

If the administrators’ recommendations to dissolve the trust are upheld, Mid Staffs’ two hospitals would be run by two other trusts.

Stafford Hospital would become part of University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, which uses an iPM PAS, while Cannock Hospital would become part of the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, which uses Silverlink.

The consultation on the recommendations to dissolve the trust went to a public consultation which ended at the beginning of October.

It then moved to health regulator Monitor before it is being forwarded to health secretary Jeremy Hunt to make the final decision by the end of the year.