Patients and staff across Torbay and South Devon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are set to benefit from a new Devon-wide electronic patient record (EPR) when the system goes live on Friday, April 3.

The Epic EPR introduces a modern and trusted digital platform that ensures staff can access patients’ health and care information quickly and securely. 

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust staff and patients have already been experiencing the benefits of the Epic EPR, which was introduced for east Devon in 2020 and for North Devon in 2022.   

When University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust switches on Epic on July  23, the new shared EPR will create one single electronic patient record system for staff in multiple hospital and community sites across Devon. 

For patients, this will mean no matter which hospital they attend in Devon, they don’t have to remember their medical history or repeat the same information to different members of staff, making their care journey more joined-up.  

Safely delivering the Epic system to Torbay and South Devon and University Hospitals Plymouth has been achieved through collaborative working across all organisations, benefiting from the experience gained from the Royal Devon.  

Professor Adrian Harris, Chief Medical Officer (Digital and Research) for the Royal Devon and Senior Responsible Owner for the One Devon EPR Programme said: “This is quite simply one of the biggest changes to health care in Devon in a generation. “The introduction of a single EPR across the county will see many benefits for years to come as more comprehensive data, provided in real-time, will support the delivery of improved patient outcomes, higher quality research and advanced service planning.”   

The launch of Epic integrates hundreds of systems previously in use across the trust into one single, electronic system, giving staff a complete overview of a person’s medical record and freeing up more time to spend on patient care. 

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust’s Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Adel Jones said: “I am incredibly proud of our teams and our partners who have worked extremely hard to get this fantastic new system live. Over the coming weeks and months, I am confident we will begin to see the full benefits of Epic realised for patients and staff.” 

For patients, one of the most exciting parts of the EPR is the new MY CARE patient portal, a new app and online service that puts information about care in the hands of patients. MY CARE summarises patients' medical information and interactions with their clinical team into one place. It also allows patients to securely and easily access some elements of their health record, including appointment data, giving them more control over their care. 

ChiefClinical Information Officer Mr Michael Green said: “The MY CARE patient portal is about much more than technology - it’s about improving the way we care for people.”

You can find more information about  the new EPR and details of how to create a MY CARE account on their dedicated pages at: https://tinyurl.com/3wp65ksz