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Connecting for Health’s head of service implementation has said he is confident the next generation Lorenzo software from iSoft will be ready for delivery to the first NHS sites within the ‘period’ of the summer.
Speaking at a Department of Health press conference last week Richard Jeavons, CfH’s head of service implementation, indicated the agency would persist with the Lorenzo software to provide detailed care records (CRS), even if delays to its delivery continue.
Lorenzo, with new integrated detailed CRS software being developed by iSoft, is meant to be delivered by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) to NHS trusts across the north of England under the £12.4bn NHS IT programme. Originally due at the end of 2004, the Lorenzo software is over three years late.
Jeavons said that while delivery had occurred in many areas, the NHS IT programme was still having difficulty delivering systems into hospitals. “The really tricky area is the putting of systems into hospitals. Anyone who knows about this programme knows that.”
He added: “We all know the challenge is in CRS deployment out through LSPs, and the challenges are with suppliers and NHS organisations.”
The CfH director acknowledged there had been repeated delays in the delivery of detailed CRS by the local service providers (LSPs). “Yes, there have been delays. We have been completely open about that,” Jeavons told E-Health Insider. He said he was confident of the first delivery of Lorenzo occurring by this summer, or thereabouts.
Pushed on the question of whether he believed there would not be any further delays to Lorenzo Jeavons said. “Experience is always the best predictor. We’ve put a lot of time in the development programme in the past 12-months. We are optimistic we will see delivery, and subsequent ones, in that period.”
Asked whether a detailed CRS had been delivered anywhere in England to date, Jeavons said CfH had delivered many systems providing elements of the functionality that will be contained in the detailed CRS, but acknowledged “there is no Lorenzo yet”.
When asked whether further delays to Lorenzo might ever lead to a point where CfH pulled the plug on the product and seek an alternative, Jeavons said: “I doubt it.”
CfH’s head of service implementation added: “There is good support for the programme but frustration in getting there.”
He added that other parts of the programme had been successfully delivered, added in or even delivered ahead of time. Examples include the N3 network, picture archiving and communications systems and GP-to-GP record transfers.
With the programme almost 50% under spent against where it planned to be – just £1.3bn of the forecast £2.8bn had been paid by last March – the CfH director of service implementation said the shortfall came from slow LSP delivery of the detailed CRS systems from iSoft and Cerner.
Responding to questions Jeavons said the LSP contract resets were still underway “The Fujitsu contract reset is still in progress. The CSC [Computer Sciences Corporation] reset is still in progress.” He added that the BT contract reset is “still ongoing but near completion”.
He explained the contract resets were being carried out to re-align priorities with changed policy objectives.
Jeavons stressed CfH wanted to accelerate progress, adding “that’s the sort of thing we will be looking at in the [Swindells] Informatics review.”
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