York and Scarborough delays Nervecentre EPR go-live

Exclusive: York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has delayed the go-live of its Nervecentre electronic patient record (EPR) system.

A trust board paper, published in October 2025, said that the EPR would be rolled out in February 2026, with work underway to “customise key elements to ensure the system meets the needs of clinicians” ahead of the planned go-live.

Speaking at a board meeting on 28 January 2026, Clare Smith, chief executive at York and Scarborough, confirmed that Bridlington would be the first site to go live on 26 February, followed by Scarborough on 27 February and York on 6 and 7 March.

However, a spokesperson for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust told Digital Health News that the go-live has been postponed until a new go-live date is agreed.

“The decision has been taken to pause implementation of phase one of our new EPR to focus on maximising elective activity and recovering urgent and emergency care performance after the winter.

“The commitment shown across our teams has been exceptional and the decision in no way diminishes that.

“We are working on a revised timeline and look forward to progressing positively in the coming months.”

Nervecentre was confirmed as the preferred bidder for the EPR in 2024 after scoring the highest in a joint tender process.

A spokesperson for Nervecentre told Digital Health News: “We support the trust’s decision that the timing of the go-live was not ideal, given other hospital priorities.

“We will be working closely with the trust to re-plan the go-live as soon as possible.”

According to trust board papers, the first tranche of the EPR rollout will include observations, clinical documentation for inpatients, urgent and emergency care, electronic prescribing and medicine administration, bed management and read-only diagnostic results.

The second tranche of the programme, which is focused on order communications, was scheduled to go live on 30 June 2026, and tranche three, including patient administration system, outpatient documentation, theatres, endoscopy and eConsent, was due to be implemented on 30 October 2026.

Nervecentre has established a strong presence in the Midlands, with Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust selecting the firm as their preferred EPR supplier.

Other organisations in the region to have gone live with Nervecentre’s EPR include University Hospitals of Derby and Burton Foundation Trust, Chesterfield Royal Hospital Foundation Trust, Northampton General Hospital and East Sussex Healthcare.

Outside of the Midlands, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust also selected Nervecentre as its preferred supplier.

Meanwhile, in January, Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group confirmed that it had delayed the go-live of its £88 million EPR system.

Ed Prosser-Snelling, interim group director of digital at the group, told Digital Health News that the programme had been delayed to ensure they “get it right”.

An EPR programme at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust and Essex Partnership University Trust (EPUT), which was planned to go live between winter 2026 and spring 2027, is also expected to be delayed owing to risks “linked to system integration and programme complexity”.