Secondary Care

The Dudley Group invests in multi million pound electronic patient record

The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust is investing £32 million over the next 10 years in a Digital Trust programme to develop a full electronic patient record.

The Trust has signed a 10 year contract with Allscripts to deliver ‘Sunrise Clinicals’, a complete digital clinical solution, across the Trust, including the capability to share records with patients.

Acting Chief Executive, Dr Paul Harrison said “This is the biggest investment in IT the Trust has ever made and is an exciting development for everyone. “The work to transform Dudley into a Digital Trust will revolutionise the way we work, delivering more effective and safer clinical care. This will save money to spend on frontline services, and free up more time for us to spend with patients.

“There are significant benefits for patients. The system will ensure all information about a patient’s treatment is available anywhere across the Trust at any time of the day or night.

“This will support clinical decisions, helping to increase the reliability and consistency of the care we offer, and enable relevant clinical information to be shared with the patient, their GP and other organisations responsible for looking after them.”

During the last year, hundreds of members of staff have volunteered to be part of a rigorous selection process, choosing the Sunrise solution from Allscripts as the preferred supplier in early December.

Dr Paul Harrison said “We have spent the last two years ensuring that we have selected the right system by talking with clinicians and other health care professionals, and building a robust and secure IT infrastructure to support this project”