- Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will launch its first Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system in November 2025.
- The system, called Archie EPR, is being implemented in partnership with Altera, using its Sunrise EPR platform.
- NHS England has provided funding through its £1.9bn Frontline Digitisation Programme, which aims to ensure all trusts in England have an EPR system by 2026.
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is set to introduce its first Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system in November 2025.
In April 2024, Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust awarded a £10 million contract for its EPR system to Insight Direct, with services subcontracted to Altera.
Implementation work began in 2024, and the trust announced that core modules covering inpatients, outpatients, electronic prescribing, theatres, minor injuries, and reporting will go live 50 days from 25 September 2025.
The EPR system, named ‘Archie’ after pioneering plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe, is designed to transform how staff work on a daily basis.
Tamara Everington, Chief Medical Officer at Queen Victoria Hospital, said:
“The Archie EPR programme is more than just a technological upgrade; it represents a fundamental cultural shift in how Queen Victoria Hospital operates. Patient care remains central to our mission, and this change will enable staff to deliver care more efficiently with access to digitised records whenever needed.”
The rollout of Archie EPR is part of the trust’s long-term plan to become a fully digitally enabled NHS provider. The system is being delivered in partnership with Altera using its Sunrise EPR platform, bringing together information currently stored in multiple locations into a single, accessible source for staff.
NHS England supported the project with funding through its £1.9bn Frontline Digitisation Programme, aimed at ensuring all trusts in England have an EPR system in place by 2026.
Archie EPR is designed to facilitate service transformation and integration, allowing clinical teams across Sussex, Surrey, and Kent to access information from a unified source of data.
Clinicians will be able to receive electronic alerts for reviews and decision-support guidance, helping to ensure care is proactive and responsive.
The contract with Altera will initially run for five years, until March 2029, with the option to extend for up to an additional two years, bringing the maximum contract length to seven years.
In May 2025, NHS England awarded a £13.3 million ‘tiger teams’ contract to consultancy firm KPMG to support trusts that are unlikely to meet the March 2026 EPR rollout target.
This initiative will focus on NHS secondary trusts that have indicated they may miss the 2026 government EPR deadline, including Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust; Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals FT; Royal Orthopaedic Hospital FT; Sherwood Forest Hospitals FT; Stockport FT; University Hospitals Liverpool Group; and University Hospitals Sussex FT.
Back in July 2023, Vin Diwakar, NHS England’s National Director of Transformation, stated that all NHS trusts were on track to have an EPR system in place by March 2026.
