[Leeds, UK] NHS Digital is co-ordinating a new digital exemplar scheme for trusts that deployed the Lorenzo IT system through the now-dismantled National Programme for IT (NPfIT).
The initiative will incorporate elements of the Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) scheme, with 12 trusts invited to submit an application.
In 2016, CSC announced its merger with the Enterprise Services portfolio of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to create DXC Technology, with a combined expected revenue of £26bn and clients in 70 countries around the world.
The funding for the Lorenzo digital exemplar scheme, not yet confirmed by NHS Digital, will come out of the Department of Health’s agreement with CSC from 2013 and it will now go straight to DXC.
This is a key difference between the Lorenzo scheme and the GDE one, through which 16 acute trusts are given up to £10m that they have to match to drive the NHS paperless agenda.
Lorenzo trusts expected to reach EMRAM stage 7 or equivalent
As the new opportunity, first reported by the HSJ (paywall), is only open to trusts that deployed the Lorenzo IT system through the NPfIT, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, for example, cannot apply to participate.
The trust went live in 2016 with the Lorenzo Patient Administration System. In June, Joanna Smith, the trust’s Chief Information Officer, told BJ-HC that the digital transformation process of Royal Brompton and Harefield has one ‘big missing piece of the jigsaw’: a new fully integrated Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system.
It is unclear what support will be provided for trusts that deployed Lorenzo outside the NPfIT, but NHS Digital’s Director of Provider Digitisation and Programmes, Nic Fox, told BJ-HC:
"This programme is one of a number of ways we're working to transform healthcare provision through maximising the potential benefits of using electronic patient records.”
The funding will be allocated during the next two to three years.
"Trusts will be offered support to develop digital solutions that enable better patient care. They will be expected to inspire and help educate others by demonstrating how successfully adopting technology can deliver improved patient outcomes and increased operational effectiveness.
“This is just part of the work that NHS Digital and our partners are doing to ensure the benefits of innovations such as electronic patient records are seen right across health and care,” Fox added.
The trusts selected will have to develop blueprints, similar to GDEs, with the expectation that they will reach stage 7 of the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM) towards the end of the programme.
Speaking at the Health and Care Innovation Expo conference back in September, NHS England’s Director of Operations and Information, Matthew Swindells, said GDEs are expected to help the NHS move away from ‘being trapped in a paper-based nightmare’.
BJ-HC understands that the following trusts have been invited to submit their application for the Lorenzo scheme: Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS FT, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS FT, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, Papworth Hospital NHS FT, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS FT, South Warwickshire NHS FT, Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS FT.
