Soft launch scheduled for CSC's Lorenzo in Morecambe Bay

But hard launch is running a month behind Connelly's deadline

The Morecombe Bay launch aims to be the first example of a trust using the system in an acute setting

The key launch of CSC's Lorenzo 1.9 to Morecambe Bay University Hospitals NHS Trust is now scheduled for the Easter bank holiday weekend, but it will be a soft launch.

A hard launch of the software is planned for May, a month after the deadline given by Christine Connelly, director general of informatics at Connecting For Health, in April 2010.

"Unless significant progress is achieved in the acute sector, then a new plan for delivering informatics to healthcare will be considered," Connelly said last April.

The targets were a successful go-live for BT in an acute trust by the end of November; the launch of CSC's Lorenzo live in a non-acute setting by the end of November and an example of the system working smoothly in an acute setting by March 2010.

The Morecambe Bay launch is key because it aims to be the first example of a trust using the system in an acute setting.

In addition, according to e-health insider, a new deal with CSC for the North, Midlands and East of England hinges on the trust-wide go-live of Lorenzo at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust by the end of March.

Morecambe Bay has had problems with the software during the testing process. Last month a key input of a key test load of patient data failed.

It is also believed that there are more than 100 bugs in the system and these are causing problems at NHS Bury, four months after it switched on the Lorenzo software.