East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust has reviewed its EPR programme, following the implementation of Epic in October 2025, highlighting positive outcomes, learnings, and early service impact.
The chief executive noted that the experience of EPR implementation was positive, “the system did not fail, we have not returned to paper, and we reported in the first week post go-live”. Staff were praised for undertaking training, implementation teams were recognised, and particular attention was paid to “extraordinary work” done by training teams, and to the director of digital, logistics and operations, Mike Meers, for his “vision and leadership”. The chief executive added that the board took a “leap of faith” in making the investment and acknowledged “the courage of members, both past and present”.
On the approach to go-live, the trust shares that “intensive focus” was placed on application building and testing, wait list validation, work queues, clinic templates, activity stabilisation planning, data migration, cutover planning, and organisational readiness.
The full business case included planned financial benefits split into cash releasing, non-cash releasing, societal including carbon emissions reduction and improved compliance, and “unmonetisable” in the improvement of patient and staff experience. “Divisional plans are reviewed monthly and through working with Epic additional benefits have arisen, with examples provided,” the trust outlines. “There are 3,050 average concurrent users, 54,000 MyChart users, and significant clinical benefits so far from the number of patient records shared with other healthcare partners.”
Cash releasing benefits covered the decommissioning of legacy systems and contracts, and a reduction in time spent on admin tasks, according to the board. When considering any “surprises” from the implementation, the pace with which patients were signing up to and engaging with MyChart was cited as “much more positive than anticipated”, along with most specialities having individuals championing the system.
“The ease of communication between clinical teams and patients has been impressive,” the board explains. “The need for continued behavioural change was raised with reference to driving the changes in process in the first six months which was key to delivering the long-term benefits. The committee was impressed with the dashboards and the progress made so far. This had only been possible through executive and divisional involvement, and the ambition for delivery was applauded.”
The next phase will include a focus on benefits realisation from the EPR and the MyChart application as an enabler in driving elective care metrics such as DNAs, patient-initiated follow-up, and reduced appointment demand. A benefit realisation group is in place along with a benefit plan for H2 2025/26 onwards, and the EPR implementation, reporting, and information system is in the stabilisation phase.
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.
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust has shared updates on phase one go-live of its EPR programme and a revised EPR milestone plan to the end of 2026 and beyond. Phase one covered the replacement of the trust’s patient administration system for acute and community services, as well as the emergency department patient first system and theatre management system. Looking ahead to 2026, Royal Wolverhampton sets out a roadmap, looking to conduct a post implementation review in March, to introduce CAS cards in ED from April, and to complete clinical EPR for inpatients by December.
