East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with the Epic electronic patient record system this week.
In a LinkedIn post, David Grannell, associate director digital at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS, counted down the hours to the trust’s Epic EPR launch, following “four years of working with the most amazing and dedicated group of people”. David added: “What started as a blank piece of paper, development of a business case, a site visit to Clacton in Oct 2021 ends with a big bang on 2 Oct 2025.”
On the launch, Elizabeth Dunlop, ESNEFT’s chief nursing information officer, posted about the “huge milestone” and the way that the EPR would “completely change” the way teams at the trust deliver care.
Echoing the “years of preparation” that have gone into preparing for the launch, Elizabeth added: “For me, this moment feels like things have come full circle….I love nursing, but I’ve always been struck by the opportunities to use digital technology to improve patient safety and make things easier and more efficient for clinical staff. Today, leading through Epic go-live, I can see those two worlds finally connecting—clinical care and digital transformation, working together for better patient outcomes.”
Nick Hulme, chief executive at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, commented: “We’ve introduced a new electronic patient record system at the trust, which brings a large number of benefits for our patients. The system will be a huge improvement for patients, offering safer, more effective care.”
The trust announced the selection of Epic as its EPR supplier in November 2023, and shared that the EPR will streamline multiple systems into one across Ipswich Hospital, Colchester Hospital and five community hospitals.
The EPR deployment forms part of a £190 million programme of investment over a 13-year period at East Suffolk and North Essex, including investment from the National Frontline Digitisation Fund.
Wider trend: EPR implementation
For a recent HTN Now session on the topic of EPRs now and in the future, we were joined by digital leaders including Sally Mole, senior digital programme manager – digital portfolio delivery team at The Dudley Group; Keltie Jamieson, CHIO at Bermuda Hospitals Board; and David Newey, digital health expert and executive CDIO. We heard in depth from our panel in terms of their EPR journey, sharing their approach, examples, challenges and lessons learned. We went on to discuss the current position with EPRs, the opportunity, and the current need. Looking ahead, we discussed what the future of EPRs looks like in the short, medium and longer term.
For a separate HTN Now panel discussion on EPR best practices, we welcomed experts from across health and care, including Sally Mole, digital programme manager at The Dudley Group NHS FT, Fhezan Ashraf, clinical configuration manager at The Dudley Group NHS FT, Stacey Spence, EPR programme manager at Medway NHS FT and Hayley Grafton, CNIO at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. The discussion began with wider introductions, where each of our experts gave an overview of their own go-live projects before moving onto post go-live best practices, exploring key learnings and challenges when it comes to engaging the workforce and measuring adoption.
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is to launch its Altera electronic patient record system in November. The EPR named “Archie” is labelled “the most significant digital transformation programme the trust has ever undertaken”, the trust shared. Implementation work began last year, with core elements relating to inpatients, outpatients, electronic prescribing, theatres and minor injuries and reporting modules will go live in November 2025.
