North Bristol third greenfield live

The last of the three ‘greenfield’ sites in the South to receive Cerner Millennium has gone live – achieving the timescale target set out when the contract was initially negotiated.

North Bristol NHS Trust has confirmed it has launched Millennium in a live environment last Friday and is on track to have it live in 90% of the trust by the end of today.

Director of assurance, information and technology, Martin Bell, said the system was introduced in the emergency department, minor injuries units, ward areas, theatres and outpatients without any issues.

“We have continued to achieve good flow through our hospitals and there have been no noted delays in patient experience,” he said in a statement.

North Bristol’s go-live follows a go-live at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, which managed to get the system live at its second attempt last week. Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust was the first to go-live with Millennium in July.

A £69m contract for BT to deliver Cerner Millennium to three new, or ‘greenfield’ sites, was agreed last April as part of the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

It followed an earlier deal for the company to look after the ‘live eight’ (now seven) trusts that received the system from Fujitsu, and to deliver RiO to 25 community and mental health trusts.

It is understood the contract negotiations included a requirement for all three sites to have the system running by the end of 2011.

A requirement for BT to deploy the system to a fourth site was dropped during the negotiations. EHI understands the Department of Health had trouble securing a fourth site wanting to take the system.

By the time Bath went live in July, it had been waiting for the system for almost five years – the trust had been due to get the system before Fujitsu left the programme in April 2008.