Fujitsu says 'full steam ahead' in South

09 Aug 2007

Half of the Southern cluster’s 35 sites have agreed ‘full steam-ahead’ go-live dates to take the initial Millennium patient administration system, E-Health Insider has learned from local service provider (LSP) for the region, Fujitsu.

Fujitsu’s managing director for the UK public sector, Peter Hutchinson, told E-Health Insider that the local service provider is engaged in projects with 17 NHS trusts, covering 50 NHS hospitals. He said all will either have Millennium Release Zero or Millennium Release One by the end of 2008.

“We have full steam ahead plans to implement Millennium in 17 trusts, with a timetable in place to deploy a mixture of R0 and R1 into these sites. We anticipate that these will be completed by this time next year. Eight further projects are in the support phase, going at a slower pace to enable the trusts to put together a full business case and there are four trusts who we are not currently scheduling plans with but have spoken to.”

The Fujitsu public sector boss said that of the 17 installations six would be R0s and the rest R1s. "R1 testing is complete and we have authority to proceed. We are now responding to additional change requests from the trusts." He confirmed that this included issues such as mental health requirements.

Six sites have so far installed the R0 version of Millennium. The remaining 12 sites have been in discussions with the LSP, where negotiations are ongoing towards agreeing a transition date.

The Fujitsu boss said four of the 12 have chosen not to start implementation planning yet. "We're talking to all the trusts - there are just four that don't have a full-steam ahead implementation plan in place yet," said Hutchinson.

Hutchinson was unable to give EHI full details of detailed timetables, but said full business proposals were in place and are being followed up. While declining to offer hostages to fortune on dates Hutchinson said of the deployment schedule. "It speeds up next year. It’s a progressive acceleration."

He stressed that past problems had now largely been resolved and that there have been significant delays. "It's no secret that some of our deployments are significantly late," said Hutchinson. "But I would argue that there is now a fantastic amount of momentum."

The key behind successful trust implementations he said was that they are led from the top. "The secret is to be led from the top. Where they delegate to the IT department it has been more of a problem.

Hutchinson used Fujitsu's most recent installation as an example: "Everyone thought Surrey and Sussex would be really tough, but the project was a success largely because it was led by the chief executive and head of nursing."

Asked to what extent the NHS Local Ownership Programme (NLOP) was shaping developments the Fujitsu boss said: "NLOP is influencing everything now and we are working much more closely with SHAs and trusts."

Hutchinson told EHI he is confident Fujitsu will still deliver the full requirements of the contract. "We would expect to deliver everything in the OBS [output based specification] by the end of the contract."

Reader's Comments

Laughter in the air

09 Aug 07 10:46

Thank you Fujitsu. This is the best laugh in ages. Excuse me while I straighten my deckchair.

Laughter indeed

09 Aug 07 15:12

"We would expect to deliver everything in the OBS [output based specification] by the end of the contract."

Spot the obvious delay, surely you should have delivered against the requirements? It has been nearly three years now.

The brakes must have failed then!

09 Aug 07 15:28

Full steam ahead can only mean that the brakes and other safety systems have failed - let's hope the "Communication cord" still works.

What a frightening thought!

Still in our Trust they have at least removed most of the carriages from the CRS train, so I suppose that it is lighter and may not have the potential to cause so much damage if it comes off the tracks.

everything in the OBS

09 Aug 07 16:35

That will indeed be a turn around given we are still waiting to see most of what was promised for Dec 2004 in Phase 1 Release 2.

Better still most of Phase 2 and almost all of the Phase 3 OBS goodies were predicated on the now effete vision of deploying Lorenzo and Carecast across primary, community and mental health settings as well as Secondary Care.

Possibly (like BT London) Fujitsu have an 'integration engine' up their sleeve.... or at least the design for one on the back of an envelope

Carriage Removal

10 Aug 07 09:36

Full steam ahead is only possible because they have removed the bigger more complex carriages from the South Cluster train! This seems to have gone pretty much unnoticed. Some Trusts can indeed get their deck chairs out....

Progress

10 Aug 07 11:00

so we've given up on electricity and are reverting to steam power?

I take it we are not to draw any analogies to the functionality the program is delivering

Stationary?

14 Aug 07 00:46

It occurs that the metaphor is rather fitting, Full Steam Ahead is from folk memory the call from the dirver to the fireman when stationary, sitting with a lot of pressure, a mix of hot air and mere water vapour, and the stench of industrial lubricants. (I was not sure EHI was ready for poetry so stop here)

Full Steam Ahead

16 Aug 07 11:54

When the engine isn't fit for purpose, getting up a full head of steam is reckless. Continuing with the project structure and management by Fujitsu can only lead to further delays and poor design. When the Clinical experts (nhs) and the System experts (Cerner) are separated by a middle man with expertise in neither (Fujitsu), what can you expect?