Guernsey’s Electronic Patient Record programme should start to go live this summer – with a full rollout still planned for next year.
Giving his final update to the States before the election in June, the Health and Social Care President confirmed last week that work is progressing with recent positive feedback.
“The Electronic Patient Record replacement programme continues to receive positive clinical feedback for the significant transformational benefits it will bring,” said Deputy Al Brouard.
“Work is now moving into the phases of testing and preparing for the initial go-live this summer,” he added.
“This process includes testing with all the other integrated hospital systems, building training materials, and rehearsing for the swap over from existing systems.”
The EPR project has cost around £22.2 million – slightly over the budget approved when the States agreed to pay for it in 2020.
The previous system – which remains in use – was in danger of being declared obsolete by 2021 with its manufacturer no longer providing support for it.
TRAKCare 2012, provided by a company called InterSystems, is also a digital programme which allows doctors and other healthcare practitioners to efficiently and securely record, track and analyse patient data, but it was said to be outdated in 2020.
A budget of “around £15 to 20m” was approved to be spent replacing the system with the new EPR to avoid “endangering” the island’s healthcare services.
When the new EPR system is implemented from next June, it is intended to improve patient records with doctors and other healthcare practitioners better able to efficiently and securely record, track, and analyse their data.
It will be five years behind schedule when it is finally implemented but Deputy Brouard insists it will be worth the wait.
“As I have previously advised, this is a complex programme, and the programme team continue to actively monitor timelines, progress and risks,” explained Deputy Brouard. “This includes providing regular progress reports to both the Governance Board and the Committee.
“There continues to be some challenges with both resources and complexity,” he added.
“Whilst we now expect a short delay to the initial go-live date of approximately one month, the current projection remains for overall programme delivery as planned in June 2026, within the funding provided.”
