HOSPITAL bosses have revealed plans to introduce a new Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system.

It would see all paper records for patients in East Lancashire Hospitals Trust replaced with a new electronic system.

The trust said the EPR would mean doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals can access patient information quicker and easier.

The trust said the new system would 'go live' in 2020.

Kevin McGee, East Lancashire Hospital Trust’s chief executive, said the trust was preparing a business case for what would be a ‘multi-million pound investment’.

He said: “We’re just in the process of now producing a business case to do what we call an electronic patient record, which basically gets rid of all the paper in the hospital and all our patient records will be electronic.

“We’re bidding for that and that’s a significant many millions pounds worth of investment.”

The trust has picked health IT giant Cerner as its preferred supplier for the deployment of the EPR system.

As well as this Mr McGee said the trust has looked at how it can ‘digitalise’ all first outpatient appointments rather than pieces of paper and letters going backwards and forwards.

This would see a patient receive a text message with a secure link to a letter detailing their appointment.

Patients would have the choice of opting out of the new system and receive a paper letter instead.

Mr McGee made the comments in an interview with Russ McLean, chairman of the Pennine Lancashire Patient Voices Group.

He said that over the next five years technology is going to ‘completely’ revolutionise the way healthcare is delivered, and that the majority of primary care contacts in the future are not going to be done face-to-face but through social media.

He added: “I think they’ll be done perhaps through GPs sitting in their own homes interfacing with individuals through social media, through Skype and through use of digital technology wherever it is.

“Automation and artificial intelligence is going to have a massive say in how we deliver healthcare.

“So this whole agenda I think is going to really revolutionise how we do our business in healthcare."

But Mr McLean raised concern plans for a new Electronic Patient Record system could impact on patient confidentiality and privacy.

He said: "This will save the NHS money and time.

“I would be fearful however of data getting in the wrong hands.

“We’ve heard stories of the MI6 and government departments losing laptops with sensitive information in them.

“So how confidential would these records be?

“I’d be quite fearful about what and who will have access to this information.

“We saw with the cyber attack last year what can go wrong with technology.”