Delivering Advanced Patient Care with Wireless Networking and Shared Service

At a glance:

• South London Commissioning Support Unit utilise Khipu Networks wireless network offering to deliver a complete Wi-Fi solution across hundreds of NHS sites within Sussex
• Enables any healthcare worker to connect to the wireless network from any healthcare building (e.g. hospitals, GP surgeries) across the region, or from their home via Remote Access Points

Khipu Networks today announced that it is supporting Sussex IT Services, part of the South London Commissioning Support Unit (SLCSU), the body responsible for IT and business support services for NHS trusts in Sussex, to provide a shared, fully-managed wireless service across all NHS Trusts within Sussex. Working with partnership with SLCSU, the new Wi-Fi solution is enabling enhanced collaboration across the Trusts, GP surgeries and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) across the region, and is saving clinical time through the use of remote and ‘pop-up’ clinics.

The new solution – which supports over 30,000 users via 2,500 access points across three acute health trusts, one mental health trust, 260 GP surgeries and seven CCGs – enables any healthcare worker in the region to connect to the Wi-Fi via any device to access appropriate information, applications and resources from any NHS location within the county. The three acute health trusts have started to use the wireless technology to enable advanced teleconferencing facilities, allowing on-call doctors to talk to a patient in the hospital without being there in person, making out-of-hours appointments much more efficient. The wireless solution is also enabling pop-up clinics to become more common across the county.

A long-term customer of Khipu Networks, the SLCSU selected Khipu’s ‘best-of-breed’ solution based on its flexibility and scalability, and is looking to extend current capabilities to include guest wireless access in the future.

“We are increasingly seeing everything going wireless in the NHS – with the introduction of more and more mobile devices being deployed, there is a huge requirement for adequate Wi-Fi to be in place. Our solution provides a more efficient method of communication and information sharing between departments, consultants and specialists, allowing the NHS more time to devote to caring for patients. We are proud to be able to support such innovation in healthcare and are excited to see the technology progress as we continue to expand this offering.”

Andy Bissenden, Head of Service, South London Commissioning Support Unit

“This project has proved to deliver on the requirements which we are increasingly seeing within the NHS in the UK. Wireless networking is a mission critical necessity that our hospital customers are using for a number of requirements such as clinical applications and unified communications. We are proud to be involved in such an innovative, forward-looking initiative and look forward to working with the SLCSU to develop this even further in the future.”

Matt Ashman, Director, Khipu Networks