The president of CSC Europe Guy Hains has expressed his full
confidence in Lorenzo, a delayed e-records system which is due to
be installed in dozens of major hospitals in England.
He told a
conference in Westminster on the future of the NHS's £12.7bn
National Programme for IT (NPfIT) that clinicians love Lorenzo.
Some 35 of them have recently spent three weeks away from their
usual work in Chennai, India, working with software developers on
Lorenzo, he said.
Speaking at the Conservative Technology Forum,
Hains said that the visits were a huge success and would lead
to better systems being installed.
He said: "Hands up, yes it [Lorenzo] is two years late on the
plus side it is a fantastic system. Clinicians love it."
Lorenzo is the "SAP of healthcare" and comprises ten million
lines of code which will rise to 15 million lines when
competed.
Hains conceded that upgrading hospital systems has proved to be
more work than CSC had originally thought. Getting the timing and
sequencing of implementations in hospitals has also proved more
complicated than expected.
To a question about the failure of some implementations of NPfIT
systems he said one answer was for the supplier to keep large
numbers of its people in the trust during the post-live
acclimatisation process.
This is necessary extra support given that trusts have two
shifts of NHS staff, a high turnover of people and doctors moving
between hospital sites.
CSC president on the success and challenges of the NPfIT - IT
Projects blog >>
NPfIT - the good and no so good - IT Projects blog >>