A big CHFT welcome goes out to healthcare colleagues from Sweden, who are with us for the day looking at how our electronic patient record (EPR) journey is transforming patient care.

As one of the first to ‘go-live and go-big’ with EPR back in 2017, we are now one of the leading, most digitally-mature trusts in the north of England*.

Oracle/Cerner, the supplier of our EPR technology, has invited the delegation from the health and social care system in the Skåne region of Sweden to HRI, where they are currently embarking on their Oracle/Cerner journey and have been signposted to CHFT as a great organisation to learn from. They’re interested in the reality of our roll-out – what we learned, and what went well. 

CEO Brendan Brown welcomed the group saying: “Thanks for coming such a long way and I hope what you see today is a level of ambition, joy and professionalism. Our colleagues just get on and do things with a can-do attitude. You need to crack on and get on with it. That’s an English phrase you can take back!“

And presenting to the team before a tour of HRI, Consultant Surgeon and our Chief Clinical Information Officer, Jonathan Cowley said: “If you took it EPR away now there’d be a mass revolt,” before explaining how it helped us to keep clinical services going during the pandemic.

Our Chief Digital and Information Officer, Rob Birkett, said: “It is our pleasure to share our experiences and learning with our colleagues from Sweden. Back in 2017, alongside Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, we went bold and went big as the first Oracle/Cerner joint instance, going live with a transition over a single bank holiday weekend.

“That was a big ask, but CHFT colleagues absolutely delivered and it has certainly paid off. That was only just the beginning, and getting to where we are now has taken time. We are now one of the most digitally mature trusts in the north of England and we are continually improving our use of the system.”

Our visitors include two hospital Chief Executives and their Chief Information Officers and Chief Nurse Information Officers. They are joined by senior programme managers helping with the transition. CHFT's Executive and Digital Health teams welcomed them before they headed off around the hospital to see it in practice.

Their Deputy Chief Executive, Per Ola Kimbala said: "I feel more optimistic and it feels like it should be smooth for us. I feel hopeful having seen it myself and I'm very impressed how how positive everyone is."

*Colleagues from our EPR partners from 2017 - Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - will also be joining us for the day. Many colleagues will remember achieving their EPR passports and all the work surrounding the introduction over that May Bank Holiday weekend of 2017.

Did you know…

• Skåne is the southernmost part of Sweden with a bridge connecting the region’s capital Malmo to Copenhagen in Denmark
• Sweden is so big, Skåne is closer to Rome than to the northern tip of Sweden
• Football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic was born in Malmö
• The Kurt Wallander books (starring Kenneth Branagh in the TV series) are all based in Skåne