Southern trusts complete BT-RiO deal

The latest trusts to sign up have completed the deal with BT, which required the participation of 25 NHS organisations, for the installation of the software from CSE Healthcare Systems. A spokesperson for CfH told SmartHealthcare.com that it could not reveal the names of the latest trusts to sign up for RiO due to confidentiality reasons. In June 2009, CfH signed a £546m deal with BT, which covers the installation of RiO in 25 mental and community health sites and Cerner's Millennium system in four acute trusts. The contract, which is specifically for the southern region, also includes the management of existing Cerner installations in eight trusts - taking over from Fujitsu Services. Before the three trusts joined the contract, only 22 sites were signed up to receive RiO. A spokesperson for BT told SmartHealthcare.com that out of the 25 sites now on board, there are 10 left to go live with the system, which will happen by late spring. The company said the installations are going well and it is confident that the roll out will be successful. "We have experience of installing RiO technology in London, so we are confident that will hold us in good stead," the spokesperson added. BT disclosed that the 10 trusts left to go live with the technology are: Ridgeway Partnership NHS Trust, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Foundation Trust, and the primary care trusts for Portsmouth City, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, Solent West, Hampshire and Kent and Medway. In August, all the sites in the south that are live with RiO are expected to be part of a national upgrade from V5 of the software to V5.4.