Surrey and Borders NHS trust goes live with electronic patient records

Doctors

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust went live with RiO electronic patient record systems yesterday.

It is the first of a swathe of "go lives" that will follow in the South region of the National Programme for IT.

Earlier this year BT signed contracts with the government to support electronic patient record systems at eight live Cerner sites in the South, it also made a commitment to roll out to four further Cerner acute sites, and 25 RiO mental health and community sites.

The contracts were awarded after Fujitsu - the previous supplier in the South - was fired from the scheme.

BT is also the local service provider for the London region of the scheme.

The Surrey and Borders system will be used by about 3,000 people across the trust which spans 125 sites, replacing the need for paper-based health records.

The systems will connect to the spine - the secure database of patient records also run by BT.

Fiona Edwards, chief executive at Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: "RiO will allow us to offer better care to the people we serve. Our staff work across multiple care settings and geographically dispersed sites, but we will now have accurate, up to date information that is quickly and securely accessible."

The new version of RiO includes a single sign on service using a smartcard which means staff will not have to remember several different passwords.