Sixty per cent of the capital's mental health trusts have systems up and running

Six of London's 10 mental health trusts are using electronic patient records systems delivered through the £12bn National Programme for NHS IT.

The infrastructure provided by BT links different organisations within the mental health community to give clinicians up-to-date access to patient information.

The ultimate aim of the programme is to create a single system accessible by relevant staff across the country.

Dr Morris Zwi, consultant psychiatrist at South West London and St George's mental health NHS trust, said: "The new system is especially useful in cases where many health professionals are involved.

"For instance, with eating disorders each patient works with at least a psychiatrist, dietician and family therapist and it can be very difficult for us all to catch up and see how patients are progressing.

"Now getting hold of the most up-to-date information from each member of the care team is straight forward."

The National Programme has been criticised for lack of support from NHS clinical staff. The switch from paper to digital systems is a significant change, according to Dr Hashim Reza, consultant psychiatrist and clinical director at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.

"The London mental healthcare community's computerised patient record system is helping clinicians to provide the best care to our patients by giving them the information they need at their fingertips, when and where they need it.

"In the early stages people were still in a culture shock, change on this kind of scale takes people a while to adjust to."

New systems have now been installed in North East London, West London, South West London and St Georges, East London and the City, and Barnet, Enfield and Haringey NHS mental health trusts.