MP Sees Healthy Progress on Local Firm's London NHS Contract with BT

Natascha Engel, MP for North East Derbyshire, finds out how CSE Servelec is improving patient care in London

MP for North East Derbyshire, Natascha Engel paid a visit to Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust in South East London to see how CSE Servelec was progressing with its multi-million pound contract with BT and the NHS London Programme for IT to provide new computer systems for mental health and community health trusts in London.

And the prognosis was positive. Clinicians are enthusiastically embracing the switch from paper to electronic records which they say is improving patient care by ensuring that they have accurate, up-to-date and secure information available around the clock - something that can be vital in an emergency.

The Derbyshire-based firm is playing a prominent role in helping BT to deliver new IT systems across London as part of the NHS Care Records Service which will provide electronic care records for everyone in England. This means that, over time, health records will be kept on computers which can be securely linked together, so the information NHS staff need in order to provide the best possible treatment will be available in emergencies.

Oxleas was chosen for Natascha's visit because it was one of the first of five mental health trusts in London to have completed a trust-wide switch to electronic records using CSE Servelec's RiO system. The trust serves three London boroughs with a combined population of about a million people.

Natascha was brought up to speed with how CSE Servelec is progressing by managing director, Alan Stubbs along with Dr Hashim Reza, consultant psychiatrist and clinical director at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and Barry Ingham from BT and was given a run through of the system's capabilities. 

Now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, CSE Servelec is also installing its RiO system in primary care trusts in London and in total has deployed 18 systems in the past year.

Dr Hashim Reza, consultant psychiatrist and clinical director at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The London mental healthcare community now has a computerised patient record system that is as good as any in the world. It is helping clinicians to provide the best care to our patients by giving them the information they need at their fingertips, when and where they need it.

Alan Stubbs said: "I'm particularly proud of the role we are playing to help deliver new IT systems for BT in London. It is great to see how CSE Servelec is providing the expertise behind BT's success. This is testimony to a lot of hard work by our people and demonstrates that the IT industry is alive and kicking in Derbyshire.

Now the company has reached 30th anniversary, we are still expanding into many exciting areas and would be delighted to employ more local people to make the IT scene here even more vibrant."�

The new centrally-based electronic system replaces a paper-based one and will make it much simpler and faster for clinicians to access data, see the latest test results or schedule an appointment.

The system is an important building block of the National Programme for IT, said to be the world's largest civilian IT project being delivered by the Government agency NHS Connecting for Health.

Information will follow the patient so that it is available wherever and whenever it is needed. For the first time, patient information will be mobile - as patients are themselves - and not remain in filing stores in the buildings where treatment or care has been received.

Martin Baggaley, former clinical lead for NHS London Programme for IT, and trust medical director, said: "The new systems are all about making life simpler - simpler for NHS staff to access patient data which is in the right place at the right time, and simpler for patients to deal with a more efficient NHS

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust now has a modern IT system to support key clinical services. This is a continuing process which will improve patient care and allow the clinicians working for the trust to work in a more efficient way. This is a first step towards a fully integrated electronic patient record."

Paul White, chief executive of BT's London Programme, said: “I'm delighted with the progress BT has made with the deployment of CSE Servelec's RiO system in both the mental health and community health settings in London. This has already brought tangible benefits to patients and the people who care for them.

“It builds on our existing achievements in London where we have now delivered capability to more than 50 of the 74 Trusts in London.

It has been really good working with CSE Servelec and I am delighted at the solid progress that has been made."

Alan Stubbs - Dr Hashim Reza - Natascha Engel

May  2007