At the end of October 2026, a referendum committee began collecting signatures against the choice of the American software Epic for the new computerised patient record of the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and eleven other hospitals in the canton of Vaud. It must gather 12,000 valid signatures by 5 December 2026 for the people of Vaud to vote on a project worth 207 million francs, according to ICTjournal and Inside IT.

Who is behind the referendum against Epic at the CHUV?

The committee brings together citizens and elected officials from several parties, according to a Keystone-ATS news agency dispatch picked up by ICTjournal on 30 October 2026. Three members of the Vaud Grand Council are among them: Yann Glayre of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), Vincent Keller of the Swiss Party of Labour (POP), and Graziella Schaller of the Green Liberals.

The German-language Swiss site Inside IT, which draws on an article by Medinside, describes a group called "Epic Non". It reportedly includes IT experts and a physician. The Swisslinux association and the Digitale Gesellschaft, which is active in the canton of Vaud, support it. Its slogan: "No to losing control over our medical data".

The Green Liberals had warned as early as the debate on whether to consider the bill, at the end of August 2026, that they could launch a referendum if Parliament approved Epic, ICTjournal reported at the time, citing RTS.

The arguments: medical data, cost and dependence

The committee does not dispute the need to replace the current tool. It wants the population to decide on a choice it considers strategic. Its grievances, as reported by ICTjournal and Inside IT, come down to three points:

  • data sovereignty: a provider subject to the US Cloud Act can be compelled to hand over data, wherever it is hosted, and "no contract changes that", according to the arguments quoted by Inside IT;
  • dependence: the committee fears financial and technological dependence on an American software vendor, and regrets that no local solution was considered;
  • cost: "there is always a way, even without 200 million", the arguments state, citing Swiss and international alternatives.

The committee is also calling for independent audits of the code and of security. It wants to guarantee that the hospitals can switch systems without risking the loss of their data. In its view, the urgency is real, but it is the result of "ten years of inaction".

What the Grand Council has already voted on

The Vaud Council of State submitted four decrees to Parliament on 12 February 2026, according to its press release. The contract had been awarded on 20 November 2025 to Epic Systems Corporation, an American publisher of hospital software, at the end of the tender procedure. The Grand Council definitively adopted the credits and the governance on 22 September 2026, according to the minutes cited by ICTjournal.

Funding componentProposed amount
Investment credit for the CHUV104.5 million francs
State guarantee for eleven institutions of the Fédération des hôpitaux vaudois (FHV)53.1 million francs
Credit for implementing the project50 million francs
Total investment207.6 million francs

These amounts come from the Council of State's press release. The members of Parliament then amended the funding. An amendment accepted in committee provided for allocating 63 million francs from a Swiss National Bank (SNB) distribution to ease the burden on the hospitals, according to ICTjournal. Parliament also added safeguards: compliance with federal recommendations on sovereign storage, a legal expert in data protection within the governance, and an annual external audit.

Why the canton preferred Epic

The current system, Soarian, is reaching the end of its life: its support and maintenance are due to end around 2027, according to ICTjournal. In a reply to Grand Council member Fabrice Moscheni adopted on 7 October 2026, the Council of State mainly cites the integration of the solution and its deployment capacity. Epic reportedly has a proven method for equipping several institutions in two to three years.

The government acknowledges that no detailed functional comparison was made with the DPI+ of the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). The HUG had not submitted a bid. According to the Council of State, six of the 21 groups of specialised functions in DPI+ require third-party applications, notably for anaesthesia and intensive care. Epic's supporters also point out that the Vaud data would be hosted in Switzerland and subject to Swiss law.

For patients, the issue concerns the hospitals' internal medical follow-up tool. It should not be confused with the electronic patient record (EPR), the national record.

Vaud referendum: the timetable up to the vote

The procedure is set out by the State of Vaud in its guide to the cantonal referendum. A referendum against a decree of the Grand Council requires 12,000 valid signatures within 60 days. This period runs from the publication of the decree in the Feuille des avis officiels (FAO), the official gazette, not from the announcement of the referendum.

  • no later than the last day of the period, the committee sends its lists to the municipalities, which have two weeks to verify the signatures;
  • within three weeks of the deadline, it submits all the lists to the canton's Office of Political Rights;
  • the canton announces in the FAO whether the referendum has succeeded;
  • if it succeeds, the Council of State organises the popular vote within six months.

What we don't know yet

  • The number of signatures already collected: the committee has not published an interim figure.
  • The date of a possible vote, which will depend on the canton confirming that the referendum has succeeded.
  • The effect of a possible vote on the project's timetable, given that support for Soarian is due to end around 2027.

Sources