The Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Trust has been recognised in this year’s Public Private Finance Awards for the first stage of its Electronic Patient Record (EPR) project.

The award was made to Luton & Dunstable and software supplier iSOFT in the category of best operational project under £20 million.

Luton & Dunstable were nominated for the award by the Department of Health for the management of a £4 million project to computerise 800,000 patient records, a vital step in the trust’s strategy to develop a fully integrated EPR spanning primary and secondary care.

Stephen Ramsden, chief executive at the trust said, “I am very proud of the Trust staff in winning this prestigious award which is the result of a strong team effort involving hundreds of staff across the hospital and iSOFT personnel."

iSOFT has supplied the trust with its PiMS-based record system. The system went live in September 2001 — on time and within budget.

Since go-live of phase one of the EPR project the trust has subsequently also gone live with a new Maternity system and have recently starting using the system to send contracting information to commissioners. Future phases include results reporting, full order communications and GP links