North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust has announced the go-live of a new laboratory information management system for pathology services at Peterborough City and Hinchingbrooke Hospitals, supported by a £6.4 million investment from NHS England, with the trust sharing benefits such as reduced reliance on paper, delivery of faster results, and improved patient safety.
The pathology labs have been upgraded to the WinPath Enterprise System provided by CliniSys. The new system will reportedly enable the trust to be able to process “2.7 million results per quarter which averages at 900,000 a month”.
The transition forms part of future-proofing in pathology at North West Anglia, aiding the progression of the Unified Test List and preparing for the introduction of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources.
Looking to the future, the trust is also planning other digital improvement projects including the bedside printing of labels for pathology specimens, and pass-through numbering within the laboratories.
Geraldine Wingfield-Hill, chief digital information officer at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is a fantastic step forward for our patients and staff. I would like to thank the implementation teams for their amazing planning and delivery of this long-term project. The first few weeks since implementation have gone well thanks to some excellent collaboration between hospital colleagues and GPs in our local communities. We now look forward to further developing our digital Pathology Service to roll out more processes that can enhance the quality of results reporting.”
In August, we reported that a prior information notice for a tender worth an estimated £4 million was published by 14 NHS trusts across the South West region, for “a single solution that provides a unified reporting experience for pathology”.
Last week, we reviewed board papers from Isle of Wight NHS Trust, Solent NHS Trust and Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which revolve around ‘Project Fusion’, which will see a number of their services brought together under a new trust; as part of their meeting, the boards discussed the new trust’s developing digital strategy and digital transition requirements, including plans to develop an EPR roadmap and priority areas of focus for digital.
