Humber likely to take Lorenzo

Humber NHS Foundation Trust looks likely to become the replacement mental health trust early adopter for Lorenzo, following Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust's withdrawal from the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

The local service provider for the North Midlands and East, CSC, has confimed to eHealth Insider that it is in negotiations with the Department of Health about the trust signing up for the iSoft software.

The trust has declined to comment, and the DH has said no new contract has been signed as yet.

However, CSC said in a statement: "We are in discussions with the Department of Health about an agreement for Humber NHS Foundation Trust to implement the Lorenzo mental health functionality, subject to a revised memorandum of understanding being signed in due course."

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust had been lined up to be the last of four ‘early adopters' for Lorenzo and the first mental health trust to take the software, which CSC has been struggling to deploy in the NME.

The trust was originally meant to go live in November 2009, then June 2010, then late summer 2010, then 7 February 2011. It finally pulled out in April.

The withdrawal left CSC’s contract for the NME in doubt and it has been locked in negotiations about a new MoU ever since. 

DH officials who attended a meeting of the Commons public accounts committee into the latest National Audit Office report on NPfIT indicated that they wanted a new deal.

However, the PAC recommended that the Cabinet Office should oversee the negotiations. At the end of last week, CSC told investors it was "on track" for a new MoU but would not be meeting the government until September.

CSC has so far deployed the latest version of Lorenzo, known as Lorenzo Regional Care Release 1.9, at Morecambe Bay, Birmingham Women’s and NHS Bury.

NHS Bury's provider arm has subsequently become part of Pennine Care, which is now involved in a collaborative procurement for a new mental health system.