Secondary Care

Child health information system rolled out in Cheshire

A new child health information system has been rolled out across Cheshire using technology from System C.

The project was delivered during COVID-19 lockdown measures to integrate 176,000 healthcare records into a new, unified child health information system.

Part of a three-phase project, with the first phase of the project across Cheshire now complete, phase two and three will see health records from Liverpool & Sefton, St Helens & Knowsley, Wirral, and Warrington forming part of the system, totalling 558,673 records. 

NHS SCW Commissioning Support Unit are managing the project after recently being awarded a five-year contract for the Cheshire and Merseyside Child Health Information Services, including to manage the health data of children securely in one place. 

The new record system is also connected to the National Events Management Service (NEMS) developed by NHS Digital to allow an individual’s event messages to be shared from one system to another. Care teams can receive notifications about births, changes of address, change of GP practice and events such as newborn and infant physical examinations, hearing and bloodspot outcomes.

Sue Trinder, Child Health Information Services Director, South Central and West CSU  “I want to give a huge thanks to everyone involved in getting this record system online by the agreed deadline, and in such difficult circumstances.  The new service has proved even more valuable given the COVID-19 outbreak and having a joined-up child health information system will bolster our efforts to care for children in the area.”

Markus Bolton, joint chief executive of System C  “A single child health record such as Cheshire’s is vital to ensuring the health and protection of 0-19-year olds.  I’m really pleased we’ve been able to support this project. South Central and West have done extremely well to get their service live on time and at a crucial period.” 

The system also went live in March 2020 across Surrey. 440,000 children health records across Surrey are part of the system used by 500 staff across three NHS providers, who together provide children’s community NHS services through Children and Family Health Surrey.