Ashford and St Peter’s NHS FT and Royal Surrey NHS FT have launched a new electronic patient record system to replace paper records at the trusts.
The shared electronic patient record system from Cerner, known as Surrey Safe Care, aims to ‘set the scene for joined-up care across the county’ and went live this week.
In 2020 the trusts received funding as part of the first wave of the NHS Digital Aspirants programme, and officially began a 10-year contract with Cerner in the same year.
By introducing the system, the trusts hope to support “healthcare professionals from both organisations gain immediate access to information about patients care and treatments irrespective of where it was received, resulting in a more coordinated approach to effective and consistent care.”
Commenting on the launch, Simon Marshall, Senior Responsible Officer for Surrey Safe Care and Director of Finance and Information at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals, said: “The implementation of Surrey Safe Care involves a major, digitally-enabled transformational change and a huge volume of work has gone into getting the two trusts prepared and ready to launch.
“By working together, we have the capability to share resources and skillset between the two organisations. This is an opportunity to collaboratively redesign pathways to deliver the highest possible quality of care for our patients.”
Louise Stead, Chief Executive of Royal Surrey NHS FT, added: “I am very excited for our teams to see the benefits of our brilliant new electronic patient record and am confident that it will improve our processes and experience for patients. Like any new system, it will take a while to iron out the wrinkles.
“However, I am sure that our community will be as supportive as ever during this time of transition and understand that we are always trying our hardest to deliver the best, most efficient care we can.”
