Emis pulls legacy systems in England

Emis is withdrawing its legacy systems from the English market over the next year because they do not meet the requirements of the new GP Systems of Choice contract.

The company is pulling its LV and PCS systems from use in England to focus solely on its flagship system, Emis Web. This means more than 800 practices will need to migrate to another system in the next 12-months.

Around 3,500 Emis practices have been upgraded to Web since 2010 and less than 10% of the company’s 4,364 practices in England are yet to order an upgrade.

A statement from Emis says the decision is because of requirements being introduced by NHS England under the new GPSOC framework, which comes into force today. GPSoC centrally funds clinical IT systems for 75% of English practices.

Emis managing director Matt Murphy said a comprehensive review concluded that neither LV nor PCS can be developed to meet the new requirements and the company has taken the difficult decision to withdraw its legacy systems in England. 

“At Emis we fully support the NHS’ vision for integrated patient care and will focus on developing Emis Web to meet the needs of not only all our GP customers, but whole health economies,” he said. 

All of Emis’ non-Web customers in England are already using the Emis Web familiarisation service – the first step towards a full system implementation. Practices can be using the service without having ordered an upgrade.

Dr Hasib Ur-Rub and Dr Geoff Schrecker, joint chairs of the Emis National User Group, said: “while we regret the impact of the coming change on those users affected, we recognise that LV and PCS cannot reasonably be developed to meet the enhanced functionality now required under GPSoC.

“The NUG will be working closely with Emis to support users, in particular those whose progress in moving to Emis Web is being affected by local circumstances.”

The LV and PCS systems will be withdrawn in England on 31 March 2015.  

EMIS will continue to support and maintain the systems until then, but this will be limited to making clinical safety updates and rectifying bugs.