COMPUTER specialists in Southampton will be part of a pioneering project to develop a revolutionary new health record system.

Staff at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust have been awarded £1.35m to create a paperless system so clinicians can share vital information on patients through secure computers and tablets.

The trust, which runs Southampton General Hospital, will implement the new system by the end of the year, followed by a programme to scan in any remaining paper documents by 2017.

Dr Derek Waller, deputy medical director at UHS, said: “This project is great news for patients and clinicians alike as it will make healthcare safer and more efficient, so we are delighted to have secured the funding to allow us to make it happen.

“Over the next three years, the system will revolutionise healthcare delivery and reduce the need for long-term storage of paper health records, saving UHS and our partners Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and Solent NHS Trust more than £1million a year.”

Adrian Byrne, director of information management and technology at UHS, added: “This will enable our teaching hospitals to remain exemplar sites for world-class healthcare, research and innovation.

“The move from paper medical records to electronic records also supports the government's vision of a paperless NHS by 2018 and provides a firm footing for the future of healthcare in Southampton.”

Funding for the project was made available via the Integrated Digital Care Technology Fund, which was launched by NHS England in May 2013 to facilitate progression from paper to digital records.

Last year, UHS received a separate award of £1.1million from NHS England's Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards scheme to cover half the cost of a new digital monitoring system for critically ill patients across the trust's five intensive care units.