CfH clinical lead thinks future may be Lorenzo

NHS Connecting for Health’s clinical lead for hospital doctors has predicted that iSoft’s Lorenzo “could be used more” than Cerner’s Millennium in the future, as web-based technologies come to the fore.

Responding to a question at this week’s Primis + conference in Nottingham, Dr Robert Pitcher confirmed that NHS organisations in the South were looking at both products following Fujitsu’s departure as local service provider in May.

He said some strategic health authorities were “keener than others” to make a decision. But he also said his personal view was that the future lay in service oriented architecture and web-based solutions.

“Technology is changing,” he told a GP who asked what the future holds for IT systems in the South. “The way systems will be written in the future is likely to be different and the service will develop.

“Lorenzo is newer, whereas Cerner is older. The future seems to be heading towards a more web-based service and as things develop it could lead to Lorenzo being used more.”

Since Fujitsu’s contract was terminated, it has come to look increasingly unlikely that a single LSP replacement will be appointed.

Dr Pitcher confirmed that CfH was still talking to London’s LSP BT about support for the “live eight” sites that have already deployed Cerner’s product.

In the interim, he said Fujitsu was providing support to these sites. The Southern Programme for IT later confirmed to E-Health Insider that at “short form agreement has been signed with Fujitsu Services to provide a mechanism for them to continue to manage the live sites until a replacement supplier is appointed.”

SPfIT also confirmed that “within existing contracts, NHS trusts are able to choose whether to take a BT Cerner system or a CSC Lorenzo system and no commitment has yet been made by the NHS.”

South Birmingham Primary Care Trust became the first to go live with a version of iSoft’s flagship software at the end of August 2008.

Dr Pitcher told the Primis + conference that safety certificates have been signed at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, ready Lorenzo to go live by the end of this month. “The roll-out of Lorenzo in Morecambe Bay is on track with the current agreed timetable, and the clinical lead there is optimistic,” he said.

In his main presentation, Dr Pitcher focused on the core, clinical functionality that hospital clinicians wanted to get from new IT systems. He strongly endorsed the use of the NHS Number and e-prescribing systems to improve safety.