A new child health information system with records of 176,000 children has been deployed in Cheshire.
It is the first step in a three-phase project by NHS South Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW CSU), commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement through a five-year contract, to deliver a single child health information system (CHIS) to Cheshire and Merseyside. This will involve combining the six that currently exist in the region.
The phase involved bringing together the systems for East Cheshire and Cheshire West and Chester, and was implemented with the deployment of System C’s CarePlus CHIS during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Phases two and three will involve bringing Liverpool and Sefton, St Helens and Knowsley, Wirral and Warrington onboard later in the year.
On completion the unified record will manage a population of over 550,000 children. This will combine records across 10 clinical commissioning groups, nine local authorities, 18 specialist, acute and community trusts and 392 general practices.
NEMS connection
The new system is also connected to the National Events Management Service, developed by NHS Digital to allow an individual’s event messages to be shared from one system to another. This should ensure that care teams receive notifications about births, changes of address, change of GP practice, deaths and the three screening events – newborn and infant physical examinations, hearing and bloodspot outcomes.
System C said the deployment was carried out without any onsite presence, with the training done through video calls and floorwalking with open Skype sessions.
Sue Trinder, child health information services director at SCW CSU, said: “The new service has proved even more valuable given the Covid-19 outbreak and having a joined up child health information system will bolster our efforts to care for children in the area.”
Image by Marco Verch, CC BY 2.0 through flickr
