In a statement published to the Guernsey government website, the president of the Committee for Health & Social Care has announced the delay of the first phase of the island’s EPR implementation to 2025, on the grounds of patient safety.
With the first phase initially planned to go live in October 2024, the president stated: “It is critical to patient safety to ensure that the transfer of old records to the new system is implemented seamlessly, and with a high-level attention to testing and new working practices. The EPR team has identified that there would be too much risk to these essential aspects of the programme to go live in October.”
The president added that updates will be provided as the project moves forward.
The statement also sees the importance of work on the EPR highlighted as “a key enabler for the future”, adding that this piece of work can “enable new working” as well as “better data and efficiencies with teams able to work with a modern digital system which will have the facilities in the future to link all our health care together”.
The States of Guernsey announced that it had selected suppliers for the programme back in 2021, naming IMS MAXIMS for acute and mental health services, and Servelec for community and child health services. The aim as specified at that time was for these systems to be in use by mid-2024.
At that time, Aidan Matthews, HSC committee member and lead for transformation, said that the programme was “laying the foundations of a paperless system joining together HSC, MSG, and other health and care providers, across the Bailiwick” and added that delivery was a “major undertaking”.
To read the new statement in full, please click here.
In EPR news from elsewhere, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust are to implement a new shared electronic patient record, with Oracle Health selected to supply the digital solution.
And for a recent panel discussion around optimising and adding value to electronic patient record (EPR) systems, we were joined by panellists who shared their insights and experience on the EPR optimisation process, considering factors such as planning, technical capabilities, workforce, culture, leadership and what ‘good’ looks like for an EPR.
