First southern trust turns on RiO

Surrey and Borders has gone live with BT's patient record system for mental and community health trusts

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the first in the south of England to install CSE Healthcare Systems' RiO electronic patient record system, as part of the extension to BT's National Programme for IT contract agreed in April. It connects the trust to the NHS Care Records Service, including the Spine database.

BT will be paid £546m to install RiO in 25 mental and community health sites and Cerner's Millennium system in four acute trusts, and to manage existing Cerner installations in eight it has taken over from Fujitsu Services.

The RiO software will in time be used by some 3,000 staff at Surrey and Borders at 125 locations. Chief executive Fiona Edwards said: "RiO will enable 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."

RiO is replacing some paper based systems, and will cover clinical and administrative work including case records, caseload management and treatment records. It includes a single sign-on system using smart cards, and provides users with access to national systems including patient demographics and Choose and Book.

BT said that it is more than 80% through its RiO implementation programme in London, where it is the programme's local service provider.

RiO has also been adopted by the Isle of Man government, which recently went live with the software. It used System C Healthcare to implement it for its mental health and social services staff.

• South asked to buy systems by April

  The Department of Health expects 'the majority of trusts' in the south of England to procure informatics systems in the first few months of next year

• BT to get £546m for southern work

  Additional work in the south of England has increased the value of BT's NHS local service provider contract from £1.021bn to £1.567bn

• CfH gives BT eight southern trusts

  NHS Connecting for Health has agreed that BT will take responsibility for the Cerner Millennium installations at eight acute trusts in the south of England

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