great news - morecambe bay goes live

http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/5951/morecambe_bay_goes_live_with_lorenzo_1.9

Morecambe Bay goes live with Lorenzo 1.9
01 Jun 2010

Morecambe Bay University Hospitals has gone live with Lorenzo Release 1.9 across its three hospital sites, E-Health Insider has learned.

The implementation of the iSoft software, a key part of the NHS National Programme for IT, was carried out by local service provider CSC.

The trust, which is the first acute hospital to use the Lorenzo software with patient administration functionality, went live across its Furness General Hospital, Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Westmorland General Hospital on Saturday.

EHI understands that the go-live was successful, other than some minor issues, and that the trust plans to subsequently install Lorenzo 2.0 in its A&E department within the next two months.

The go-live follows a string of long delays for the trust in implementing both the first and second release of Lorenzo under the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

The trust went live with Lorenzo R1 which provided limited clinical tools, runninging on top of an existing PAS in November 2008.

Morecambe Bay then failed to go live with Lorenzo R1.9 by the end of March, as required by the Department of Healths chief information officer, Christine Connelly, in order to show significant progress by suppliers within NPfIT.

As a result, Connelly told EHI: CSC has not gone live with Lorenzo 1.9 at Morecambe Bay. We are not in a position to sign an MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] with CSC and will not do so.

The DH invoked contract clauses requiring CSC to rapidly provide a credible recovery plan within days and weeks and asked CSC to provide a plan that they were confident that they could deliver.

It is uncertain what shape CSCs 3 billion contract to supply Lorenzo to the North, Midlands and East will now take given that the NHS needs to make more than 20 billion of efficiency savings over the next five years.

The Conservatives stated position in opposition was to seek to re-negotiate the LSP deals in favor of much more localised systems.

Sarah Bruce


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