Lorenzo has just 174 'regular users'

Figures released by the government show that a year after the first trust went live with Lorenzo there are only about 174 “regular users” across the  five NHS trusts using the system.

The figures, given last week by health minister Mike O’Brien in response to a question from Conservative MP Richard Bacon, relate to the use of Release 1 of the care records software.

They show that the software remains at a very early stage of deployment; so far it is only being used in strictly limited areas of a small number of hospitals.

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, the flagship acute site, has only 96 users a year after it first began to roll-out the system. By June, just three wards at the relatively small Furness General hospital had gone live.

South Birmingham Primary Care Trust, which has been using the system for more than a year, only has 16 regular users. At Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust, there are just seven regular users.

And at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which began to pilot the system in a joint replacement clinic in April, there are just 12.

Five Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust, the first mental healthcare trust to begin using R1 so far counts just 43 users.

O’Brien also revealed that the highest ever recorded number of consecutive users of Lorenzo was 19; a figure reached on 6 October.

CSC holds local service provider deals with the Department of Health totalling almost £3 billion, which centre on delivering Lorenzo to almost 60% of the English NHS.

To come close to success, the system will have to be used by tens and then hundreds of thousands of users. Payment on the LSP contracts was originally said to be based on delivery and usage of systems.

The figures are far lower than those previously indicated by CSC and the individual trusts. Five Boroughs told EHI in October that it had 150 clinical and administrative users.

Explaining the low number of consecutive users, the health minister said: “The number of concurrent users of the system is lower than the aggregate number of regular users because clinicians spend the majority of their time working directly with patients.”

He added: “Time spent using the system is relatively short, and in most care settings, users will log in and log out of the system repeatedly throughout the day.”

So far, CSC and iSoft have only provided NHS trusts with R1 of the Lorenzo software, which provides limited clinical tools, on top of an existing patient administration system.

The much fuller Release 1.9, which for the first time includes a PAS, is due to go live at NHS Bury, followed by Morecambe Bay.

Assuming the successful delivery and roll-out of R1.9, usage numbers should significantly accelerate. The plan is for NHS Bury to become the first NHS organisation switch to the Lorenzo with a PAS, which will involve up to 600 new users out of 800 staff.

If Bury is a success, Morecambe Bay is then set to become the first big acute trust to switch off its existing PAS and move to the new system. This would entail thousands of staff starting to use Lorenzo.