The 14th of July, 2025, had been circled on calendars across Sheffield hospitals for months. It was the moment that many were dreading, but couldn’t be put off any longer. For the previous two years, the entire hospital trust had been gearing up for the day when their new “EPR” (electronic patient record) system would finally go live.
The choreography had been planned out to a tee. The old system was to be turned off on the previous Wednesday night, at which point the hospital would switch to paper records until the new system went online.
Then, a few days later, the new system would be turned on, with all the data seamlessly migrated over and the hospital ready to pick up where it left off.
It didn’t quite work out like that. One senior clinician switched on his computer that day, and tried to access his patients’ records, only to be hit with a feeling of sinking dread. None of them were there. “It was total chaos,” he told us.
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