Programme scheduled to begin going live within two years
Bolton claims it could soon be able to share data with other neighbouring NHS trusts Credit: HMSS
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust is embarking on a £30m project to implement electronic patient records (EPR).
Currently, different departments of the Royal Bolton Hospital maintain separate records, as do other trust-managed providers of healthcare services across the town and the wider north-west region. The EPR programme is designed to create records that include a patient’s complete care history, thus enabling better communication between medical and care professionals, as well as the citizens they serve.
The scheme is also intended to ensure clinical staff have access to comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date information. This, the trust said, will enable the provision of better services, particularly in terms of ongoing assessments and preventive treatments.
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The trust added that a number of neighbouring trusts are already the same platform, developed by specialist software firm Allscripts, meaning that records could even be shared across the breadth of the Greater Manchester area.
The trust will commence work on the programme next month, with the first phases of the project scheduled to go live in the spring of 2019.
Ken Bradshaw, deputy chief informatics officer at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Signing this contract is the result of months of hard work behind the scenes preparing our systems and teams for this investment. We’re delighted to be at the point where we can start to progress the project and reap the benefits it will bring for our patients.”
