The Christie NHS Foundation Trust has shared the latest on its Future Christie programmes and work to procure a new EPR, with an outline business case considering options.
A full EPR business case is now expected in Q3 2026, according to the trust board, with the commercial case and route to procurement being finalised in consultation with legal advisers, the trust procurement team, and NHS England, to ensure compliance with legislation and regulatory requirements. Work is also underway on its financial model, and on a detailed review of operational and governance arrangements following confirmation of a partner. “Finalisation of the commercial case and identification of the route to procurement will be the principal drivers to the project timeline,” the board states. “Indicative timescale for a framework procurement exercise is 12-14 months.”
The Christie also shared an update on its use of ambient voice technology, with a technical validation completed and a phased rollout beginning with surgery and haematology having started in January 2026. “The AVT solution is based on an upgraded version of existing digital dictation product (Epro),” it notes. “Functional issues, affecting a minority of users, relating to the upgrade rather than AVT were identified shortly after deployment which has slowed deployment. It is anticipated that the AVT roll out will be able to continue following a technical fix and further testing.”
The AVT programme will now proceed with a coordinated roll out across priority use cases, focusing on improving clinical efficiency, documentation quality, and patient experience. There are also plans to extend beyond outpatients to areas including MDTs, board rounds, virtual clinics, and emerging automations, with early scoping work being done with suppliers such as Microsoft Dragon, UiPath, and Cisco. Clinical teams are involved in the designing of accompanying templates, prompts, and operational workflows, the trust notes.
On Joint Analytics for Cancer, The Christie shares that following phase one business case approval in October 2025, a strategic collaboration with Accenture has been commissioned to modernise data infrastructure and help transition to an intelligent hospital model supporting research, AI, and personalised care. Three workstreams are active to support this: a data platform assessment; an initial data strategy development; and a data quality assessment. “Extensive” stakeholder engagement is progressing, it continues, with aims to deliver recommendations for a target data platform and data strategy by the end of Q1, 2026.
Wider trend: Digital plans and priorities
Sir James Mackey, chief executive at NHS England, has outlined next steps on planning and priorities for 2026/27 in an open letter to ICB and trust chief executives. Mackey starts by congratulating execs on progress toward operational targets on referral to treatment and urgent and emergency care, adding: “What we absolutely need to avoid is the risk that, while we are rightly focused on making 2026/27 a success, we miss maximising the opportunity the multi-year planning process gives us to stretch ourselves over the medium term and really bring the benefits of the 10 Year Health Plan to life.” Executives are therefore asked to begin to build out strategic commissioning narratives to focus on what strategic commissioning means for the local system and how it will be developed over the next three years; plans around neighbourhood care; whether changes to financial flows or payment are sought to help with delivery; and what more can be done at the centre to help drive pace of change locally. ICBs should provide a single document via regional teams to summarise the above points by 15 May.
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust has set out its digital delivery goals and priorities for 2026/27, focusing on using data to improve the health of communities, using tech to support people to be well at home, providing better access to care, making life easier for staff, and delivering more productivity. As well as developing digital maturity through EPR implementation, connecting data through the Federated Data Platform, and making the NHS App the primary front door for patient access, the trust plans to work on its digital foundations in a number of priority areas.
The board of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust has shared its plans for EPR go-live in 2027 and digital priorities such as digital literacy, data quality improvements, and the adoption of ambient voice technology and automation solutions to improve care quality and release time to care. After delivering a full business case to NHS England for its SystmOne EPR, implementation plans are “well underway”, the board reports. Six Listening into Action teams have been assembled to direct the design and configuration work required to tailor the system to meet trust needs, and good progress is being made on staff training and the migration of data from Lorenzo. The development of new EPR super users is a priority for Q1 2026/27, and go-live is hoped to take place in 2027.
