Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has announced a 10-year agreement for the Nervecentre electronic patient record system across the trust’s hospitals.
The £53 million agreement will see Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital and Royal Liverpool University Hospital utilise the single, integrated digital patient record, joining 15 trusts now committed to Nervecentre.
On the programme, James Sumner, group chief executive of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, commented: “This is a significant step forward in our digital journey. It’s a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity to transform how we work and how we care for our patients. We look forward to working together with Nervecentre to deliver this programme with strong clinical leadership, transparency and collaboration at its heart.”
The system is planned to replace “a complex landscape of existing digital systems”, the trust said. Adding that “LUHFT will continue to work closely with Liverpool Women’s Hospital, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, The Walton Centre and The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, as they progress business cases to adopt the same EPR system. This approach supports the long‑term vision for a shared EPR across Liverpool’s adult and specialist services, enabling greater integration and consistency of care.”
Last month, HTN covered the news of University Hospitals of Liverpool Group seeking feedback on its five-year strategy developed using population health data noting “a once in a generation opportunity to make bold changes and transform patient care for the future”. As well as focuses on partnerships, research and innovation, and attracting and retaining “the brightest and best people” to drive care, the strategy sets out a series of plans for digital and data. The cornerstone of these plans is the procurement of a single EPR, the group stated, along with the development of a shared digital infrastructure with simplified digital systems and reduced logins.
Paul Volkaerts, CEO of Nervecentre, added: “We are delighted that Liverpool University Hospitals has chosen Nervecentre as its EPR supplier. This partnership will bring a further 1,600 hospital beds onto the Nervecentre EPR platform, which has been designed from the ground up to support collaboration between hospitals while delivering the intuitive digital tools clinicians need on the frontline. We look forward to working with LUHFT to help realise their vision for more connected, digitally enabled care across the city.”
Wider trend: Electronic patient records
With the help of a panel of experts from across the health sector, HTN recently took a deep dive into EPRs, looking at approaches to implementation, lessons learned, challenges, and future directions. Panellists included Ian Mackenzie, CIO at Surrey and Borders Partnership; Ciara Moore, EPR operations director at Bath, Salisbury and Great Western Group; Keltie Jamieson, CIO at Bermuda Hospitals Board; and Michael Hardman, practice lead for software development at Aire Logic.
The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust has extended its contract with Meditech to support the continuity of its core clinical information system whilst undergoing a procurement for a new EPR solution. The £2.8 million contract is set to run from 19 March 2026 to 18 March 2028, with the option to extend to 18 March 2030 to accommodate procurement activity. The trust plans to utilise the contract term to prepare, tender, and implement a new solution, working toward strategic convergence of core clinical information systems in accordance with NHS long-term strategy.
For our EPR feature series, we took a deep dive and reflected on some of the progress made around EPRs over the last 12 months, focusing-in on implementations, on optimisation and benefits realisation, on future plans, and on insights from the wider health and care sector. This included looking at implementations and optimisation work from more than 30 NHS trusts.
