Royal Free NHS boss explains the pain in implementing Care Records IT

Andrew Way, chief executive of the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust made the following statement on Friday, about IT problems he has had to handle at the Royal Free.

"You may have heard or read about the problems we have encountered during the introduction of the Care Records Service (CRS) at the Royal Free.""I want to thank staff for all the hard work they so far have put in to implementing CRS – Cerner at the hospital. I know that it has been very difficult for them, has created substantial additional work, and often caused concern. I want to thank you, our patients, for supporting the Royal Free through this change. Some of you have asked why it was necessary – indeed I have asked that myself many times.""Technology, underpinning effective, efficient healthcare, is the only way forward for a modern progressive hospital like ours. We now have the basics of one of the world's most highly regarded clinical IT systems established at the Royal Free. It is increasingly more stable, and over the coming weeks and months we will be adapting its use to the way in which our staff – through the trust’s user group, want the system to work to enhance the service we can provide to you, our patients, their families and friends.""The introduction of the system has caused a £10m problem for the trust. The wider NHS has not left us unsupported and we are in discussion over how the Royal Free achievements can be recognised. I am assuming that there will be no need to change our current investment plans, but this will need to be kept under review.""We continue to work with BT and Cerner to decide what clinical IT developments the trust would wish to pursue. We are particularly interested in assessing whether and how a better integration between other clinical systems and the main CRS can be achieved to improve the way in which our treatments are organised."