Following the approved release of the local service provider LSP's out-of-hours module for their Community and Child Health Solution, there was significant interest in deploying the application to out-of-hours and walk-in centres. The Bishop Auckland Urgent Care Centre was to be the first implementation.

The project was initiated on the basis that the necessary commercial agreements would be in place to support the deployment and subsequent continuing roll-out. As the project progressed it became clear that there were a number of residual commercial issues which had the potential to delay the project go-live date.

Our approach

The deployment support team worked closely with the NHS project, NHS CFH and the LSP to ensure that the project could continue to stay on course while assisting in the resolution of the remaining issues behind the scenes. The project was given the space it needed to succeed and an agreed basis for future deployment was agreed.

The deployment support team can act as an 'honest broker' between NHS organisations, LSPs, system suppliers, drawing on NHS CFH expertise to ensure that deployment projects receive the right help at the right time so that they can stay on track.

Value to the customer

"The support received from the central team was invaluable in progressing the Bishop Auckland Urgent Care Centre deployment when we hit a major problem.

"The team had immediate understanding of the issues and resolved the problem very quickly, allowing the project to successfully complete to original planned timescales."
Mark Walsh, Head of IM&T Programme Management, County Durham and Darlington LHC