Emis : NHS Wales purchases EMIS Health Symphony for Emergency and Unscheduled Care Departments

Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMU) and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCU), have signed their deployment orders and test environments of Symphony, have been installed at the National Data Centre in Newport, which are being accessed and tested by both boards.

The current phase of delivery is addressing the design, development and installation of a set of clinical interfaces between Symphony and the Welsh Master Patient Index, the Welsh Clinical Portal and the Welsh Clinical Communications Gateway which links to GPs to enable them to receive discharge letters that record correct and timely clinical updates on ED attendances.

The agreement between EMIS Health and NHS Wales was signed in December of last year and provides a clinical solution to manage Unscheduled Care in Wales. This contract will enable six health boards within NHS Wales to call-off and deploy EMIS Group's clinical information and management solution, Symphony, into their Emergency Department and Minor Injuries units. The seven year agreement (with an option to extend for a further four years), includes software and hardware, as well as implementation services and ongoing support and maintenance.

Teams from the NHS Wales Informatics Service, health boards and EMIS Health are working together on a series of initiatives to ensure that the software and hardware infrastructure is in place and thoroughly tested. In the next few weeks, work will commence on the data migration phase of this national programme.

"We welcome this expansion to our long term partnership with NHS Wales and fully support their commitment to improve the provision of Emergency Care services. As well as providing vital information to clinicians in a hospital setting, Symphony will facilitate the integration of care by hospital clinicians and all Welsh GPs."

Duane Lawrence, Managing Director of secondary care at EMIS Health said "Our central mission is to improve patient care through systems that connect healthcare. As the six boards get up and running on our EMIS Health Symphony platform, they will be able to share information about patient care with local GPs and update clinical notes for each patient As a result, this programme of work will deliver a tremendous leap forward in the provision and communication of emergency and unscheduled care across Wales."