Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust has delayed the planned June go-live 
of its eCare EPR, describing the decision as a “necessary and appropriate assurance action”.
The decision was taken following a 60-day review of clinical, operational, and technical readiness, the board shares, highlighting that despite substantial progress, it had not been sufficiently assured that a June go-live would consistently support safe patient care and service continuity across all areas. An NHSE 90-day assessment of the programme further rated it Amber/Red, the board adds.
Additional time will now be taken to complete further clinical and operational assurance, the trust states, as well as to strengthen end-to-end pathways, improve safety controls, increase staff readiness and confidence, and “reduce systemwide risk at go-live and during early stabilisation”.
Revised timelines will be given over the coming weeks, according to the board. “Our focus remains on going live successfully, safely and sustainably, in a way that supports integrated working and high-quality care.” Plans to reduce the eCare workforce from 155 to 30 in September 2026 will also need to be revised, the trust outlines.
Noted was the need to understand the impact of delays on the capital programme, and the importance of learning from other trusts’ EPR roll outs and the effects of delays on performance metrics.
Coding staff continue to work on testing, training, and system readiness, with coding under eCare expected to take 30 percent longer, RCHT shares. Work is also continuing on implementing new data transformation software and on data-mapping, migration, and build issues. “RADAR Data Warehouse development is progressing but still uncovering numerous data and workflow issues during testing. Critical gaps—including diagnostics, PIFU, delay codes and ECDS v4.0—pose a material risk to mandatory reporting, with NHSE able to prevent go-live if requirements are not met,” it adds.
Wider trend: EPR
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust is progressing with its EPR programme, noting the beginning of clinical validation workshops and workforce engagement initiatives. The CCIO of Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust has taken to LinkedIn to share an update on progress toward the trust’s scheduled 2027 go-live of the Rio EPR system. Referring to the coming week as a “pivotal” one in the journey toward go-live, Venkatesh Muthukrishnan, CCIO, shared that it marks the beginning of clinical validation workshops which will see clinicians coming together to inform the development of the system.
United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has issued a pipeline notice to procure an EPR implementation delivery partner to support its EPR programme. The trust states that the notice is to inform forward planning, ahead of an approximate date of 1 July 2026 given for the publication of a tender notice. Estimated contract dates run from 1 September 2026 to 31 March 2028, for a period of a year and seven months.
The board of University Hospitals Dorset has shared a series of updates around its HealthSet EPR programme and wider digital priorities. With a contract signed in March 2026 with Epic, the HealthSet programme is now underway, with core implementation activity reportedly to begin in late summer 2026, and a “big bang” go-live scheduled for April 2028. Preparation activities have included “lessons learned” engagement with a number of other organisations who have already implemented Epic, and a stakeholder visit to Epic’s UK headquarters in early May 2026.
