The NHS Bury trust went live with its Lorenzo electronic patient record software on Tuesday - it is the first trust to use this version of the software and the fourth to go live this year.

The new version, Lorenzo 1.9, has its own patient administration system as well as a electronic health records system, where previous versions of Lorenzo had worked with legacy patient administration systems.

The system was implemented by CSC, the local service provider.

Lorenzo developer iSoft says the system will support almost 600 users across two wards and 1,200 clinics.

The deployment is a much-needed boost for iSoft and the National Programme for IT, which suffered criticism recently after it emerged that only 175 clinicians across the whole country were using Lorenzo patient software, despite extensive costs.

Rollout of electronic patient records is running four years behind schedule and in April, director general of informatics Christine Connelly set deadlines for local service providers CSC and BT to achieve “significant” progress with rollout.

Connelly said that CSC and iSoft must get Lorenzo into a care setting by November and “working smoothly” in an acute setting by March.

Gary Cohen, iSoft’s executive chairman and chief executive, said the company is committed to helping trusts meet these goals.

The university hospitals of Morecambe Bay are due to go live with Lorenzo by the end of March next year.

CSC also announced this week that it has now implemented electronic patient records in 1,000 GP practices across the country.