Birmingham Women's unhappy with Lorenzo

Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust is refusing to sign off on its deployment of Lorenzo because it is not satisfied with the level of functionality delivered.

The trust was the third ‘early adopter’ of the iSoft software, which CSC is trying to deploy to the North, Midlands and East of England as part of the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

It went live with the latest version of the software, Lorenzo Care Management Release 1.9 in November last year, and said at the time that it was “pleased” to have taken such an “important step” although there was “much work to do” as new modules were added.

The Cabinet Office’s Major Project Authority review of the national programme, which formed the basis of last week’s announcement that NPfIT was to be “dismantled”, says the trust has yet to sign off on its deployment verification criteria.

It says this is because of “a difference of opinion with the supplier believing that they have met the deployment verification criteria, while the trust is not happy with the level of functionality delivered. CfH expect to resolve this difference of opinion soon.”

The review makes no mention of NHS Bury, the first early adopter, but says that University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust is “close to sign-off” while Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust pulled out of becoming the fourth early adopter this spring.

This appears to contradict evidence that former DH director general of informatics Christine Connelly gave to the Commons public accounts committee this autumn, which indicated that both Morecambe Bay and Birmingham Women’s had signed off on the system.

CSC has been locked in negotiations with the DH over a new memorandum of understanding for the NME since Pennine Care pulled out.

The negotiations have been delayed by a National Audit Office report that made criticisms of the detailed care records element of the programme, the PAC hearing on the report, and the MPA review.

Last week, the DH indicated that an oversight committee chaired by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude and with DH and Cabinet Office representation would be involved in the negotiations.

The MPA review concluded the current implementation of Lorenzo R1.9 was “a long way short of the full functionality of the contracted solution which has four stages of functionality and is intended to be rolled currently out to 221 trusts.”

Further discussion of the situation is marked “text redacted.” However, under a section headed “next steps” the review says that “if there is to be any consideration of continuing with the Lorenzo development, a tightly controlled timescale and a “plain English” agreement for what has been agreed and the consequences for failing to deliver it should be drawn up.

The review says that if this can’t be done, “then the decision to stop the element of the contract relating to the deployment of Lorenzo should be taken and the most cost effective route to exit the relevant element of the contract should be taken.”

The DH indicated at the PAC hearing that its preference is for a new deal, the Cabinet Office report indicates this is still its preferred approach. 

EHI understands that Humber NHS Foundation Trust is likely to fill Pennine Care’s place and is in contract negotiations with CSC and the Department of Health to take Lorenzo.