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Public Sector Roundup: Hospital goes wireless

Salisbury NHS Trust rolls out a new wireless local area network, six million use Choose and Book, and Swale boosts its management and communication system.

By Nicole Kobie, 25 Jan 2008 at 17:16

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WLAN for Salisbury hospital

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust has picked Alfred McAlpine to design, rollout and manage a new Cisco wireless local area network (WLAN) at a local district hospital.

The system will let nurses and doctors use mobile devices to take notes electronically from patient bedsides, saving time and paperwork while boosting accuracy.

Peter Russell, head of IT at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We will be among the first hospitals to take wireless to this level...The processes that we will now be able to implement across all departments will transform the way our staff work and importantly allow us to provide patients with a more efficient service and the highest standard of care."

In the future, the WLAN could be used to support Voice over IP telephony and RFID tags, both of which the hospital plans to eventually implement.

Choose and Book hits six million users

The Choose and Book electronic referrals system, developed by Connecting for Health (CfH) for the NHS, has now referred six million patients from local surgeries to specialists.

The system is now in place at 90 per cent of GP practices and all NHS hospitals. The new milestone comes just three months after the system hit five million users.

CfH said: "They are able to book their appointments electronically at a place, date and time that is convenient to them and they no longer have to put their life on hold while they wait to hear back from a hospital for when their appointment will be."

Swale Council boosts contact centre management

Swale Council has signed Northgate Information Solutions for a £50,000 project to join up its management of health, housing and customer feedback.

The new services will feature a geographic information system, helping to cut operating time and better engage with residents, the council said.

Mark Radford, corporate services director the council, said: "It is imperative that we hold a dialogue about the public services used by all Swale residents and their families. We are delighted to be working in partnership with Northgate to provide sustainable services that really place the citizen at the heart of public services."