South Birmingham podiatrists first to get Lorenzo

Podiatrists at South Birmingham Primary Care Trust have become the first in the country to receive a version of iSoft’s Lorenzo software under the NHS National Programme for IT.

The podiatrists began to use the service after the system went live a week ago. In a statement to EHI NHS Connecting for Health said. "We can confirm the Lorenzo system went live in the first Early Adopter site on 3 September.”

The spokesperson added: “Clinicians have been using the system to support their work for the podiatry service at South Birmingham PCT”.

The PCT told EHI: “We are working with the Strategic Health Authority and CSC as an early adopter PCT to provide experience and feedback to inform future rollouts"
It had been expected that Lorenzo would first go live at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, a signficantly more complex acute trust.

A CSC spokesperson said the trust was still working towards an unspecified go-live date. “Morecambe Bay is in the final stages for preparation of “go live”. We are working with the Trust to ensure the timescale does not conflict with their other business priorities."

Due to have gone live in early summer Morecambe Bay is known to have been testing the software for several months. The trust failed to hit a planned June go-live date.

Instead the system was switched on last weekend at South Birmingham, making the PCT the first early adopter site to provide some of its staff with live use of the system. The third ‘early adopter’ site due to take Lorenzo is Bradford.

Under a programme called ‘Penfield’ the Lorenzo software is meant to be delivered in four releases. Release one has now been delivere, release two is due in November 2008; release three from July 2009; and release four from March 2010.

The software is the core Care Records Software to be installed in NHS trusts across the North Midlands and East of England by Computer Sciences Corporation under the NHS National Programem for IT.

The initial implementation comes four years after iSoft first promised delivery of Lorenzo. The R1 software, which is not spine compliant, is designed to offer trusts some initial clinical benefits. It is understood to offer requests and results reporting (though not requesting), some views of electronic patient records, and some elements of a patient administration system. A full PAS is provided is meant to follow in R2 due by the end of 2008.

In May the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority said it now expected to complete roll-out of Lorenzo by 2016.