Lancashire trusts buy Virgin network

A collaborative partnership of eight Lancashire trusts and primary care trusts has chosen Virgin Media Business to create a £9m network to connect 170 healthcare sites.

The project will include the delivery of wireless, local area network, voice, remote access service and mobile service and will come with a bespoke service desk to act as a single point of contact for users.

It will connect 11 hospital sites, 85 health centres, clinics and surgeries, 33 mental health and social care departments, three prisons and 37 other sites. The hope is that it will improve efficiency, optimise online security and enhance patient care and experience.

"Our new shared infrastructure service will enable Lancashire’s health service to collaborate in new technology projects to ensure we have information available to the clinician at the point of care, as part of our Care Closer to Home agenda," said Declan Hadley, associate director of IM&T at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust.

"By working together, Lancashire’s healthcare community has addressed affordability issues to provide the most innovative and agile technology solutions available to significantly improve our patient services."

Virgin Media Business will work in partnership with infrastructure and security specialist Imerja to install the initial stage of the project, which includes the development and management of the service desk.

Further phases of the project will include videoconferencing, fixed and wireless LAN services and business continuity initiatives.

David Astley, head of health and emergency services at Virgin Media Business said: "As more local authorities, health and social care agencies gear up to deliver a personalised service for citizens, organisations are likely to regard Lancashire’s collaborative partnership as an ideal example ofhow to achieve a total solution to meet current and future needs." 

Link: Virgin Media Business (formerly known as ntl:Telewest Business).

Video diaries: Declan Hadley is an E-Health Insider video diarist.