Our game changing electronic patient record (EPR) is now live across our hospitals and other sites (including Barking Community Hospital and St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub), making us the last acute trust in London to go digital.

Our Chief Executive, Matthew Trainer, said:

This is an important moment for our Trust. Over time, our EPR will help us improve patient care and the way staff do their job.

So far, the roll out has been running to time and is largely going as we had expected. We have had problems but have been able to fix most of them as they have come up.

It will take weeks or months for some of our services to start to see the full benefits and for us to be confident that we have managed this change properly. But we have made a promising start. I have already seen examples this week of staff delivering better, safer care as a result of our new system.

Lots of our staff have had to work incredibly hard to get it up and running. They are adjusting to a new system while preparing for a strike by resident doctors.

We have also had to cope with the impact of a couple of the busiest weeks in A&E on record, after our busiest October ever and a very difficult start to November. I know staff and patients have had to put up with long waits, crowding and corridor care and I am sorry about this.

I’d like to thank everyone visiting our sites for their patience when things have taken longer than usual.

Our EPR means all relevant information, including medications, test results and allergies, will be held in one secure digital medical record, quickly and easily available to all healthcare colleagues involved in that patient’s care.

It will improve safety, reduce errors and free up staff time to focus on their patients by reducing form filling, while patients will not have to repeat themselves each time they speak to a new clinician.

Our EPR is the same as the one being used at Barts Health, our neighbouring trust, and they have supported us as we’ve gone live.  Having an EPR in common means if you are treated at any of their hospitals, their clinicians will also have access to your record.