Isle Of Wight Begins Joining Up Health And Social Care

The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has begun the process of joining up health and social care systems by extending an existing contract for its Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system.

Specialist systems and business process services provider Civica will now be including the healthcare organisation’s adults’ social care services within its ‘Paris’ EPR system.

The records form an important part of the Trust’s five year vision for health and social care which was agreed by the NHS, Isle of Wight CCG and the Isle of Wight Council.

The plan is intended to support the Care Act which calls for more person-centred and coordinated care, as well as the implementation of the Better Care Fund, a budget pool designed to aid the integration of health and social care services.

According to Civica, the Paris EPR application has been specifically designed to act as an integrated health and social care system.

“The opportunity for an integrated system between NHS Isle of Wight and the Isle of Wight Council will enable professionals to view which services clients are receiving, making a client-centric electronic record,” claimed the NHS Trust’s executive director for transformation Katie Gray.

“Clients will benefit from one single point of access; collection of demographics and client history will only need to be taken once,” she added.

Paris is set to be used by over 150 social care and back office support staff.

Programme Focus On Service Users

The Trust and Council are hoping to implement mobile working in future to improve the quality of care while making savings through operational efficiencies.

“The project forms part of a wider programme of work around integration of adults’ social care and health services,” claimed ICT client link development manager at the Isle of Wight Council.

“It is the ideal solution to achieve the vision of person-centred, coordinated health and social care. Initial focus will be on implementing the requirements around the Care Act with further projects around information sharing and integration,” she added.

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