Compliance Toolkit

MP admits core NHS IT system has just 24 users

Kable

Published: 18 Dec 2008 07:30 GMT

Health minister Ben Bradshaw has acknowledged that, so far, just 24 people are using one of the core systems in the NHS National Programme for IT.

Bradshaw said that the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust is making "limited clinical usage in a single ward, with 10 system users", of the Lorenzo patient-administration system. At South Birmingham Primary Care Trust, the system is restricted to 14 users in the podiatry team.

In a written parliamentary answer on Tuesday, Bradshaw added that the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will go live in the new year with Lorenzo.

The Lorenzo software is being developed by iSoft for use by all trusts in the north, Midlands and east of England, where CSC is the National Programme for IT local service provider.

In reply to questions from Conservative MP Richard Bacon, Bradshaw confirmed delays in the release schedule for the software. As part of a contract reset in January 2007, the intention was for Lorenzo release 3.5 to appear by 30 June, 2008, and release 4.0 by 30 June, 2009, but the minister said that Lorenzo release 2.0, containing care-management functionality, should now be available for testing in the UK by the end of December.