One domain for Southampton GPs

Healthcare Computing has completed a project to deliver a centrally-managed IT service for NHS Southampton City’s GP practices.

The IT support solutions company said the One GP Domain Project had put in place infrastructure to enable more centralised IT management across the primary care trust.

It also said this would mean reductions in the cost of deploying software and day to day administration.

NHS Southampton City’s IT department commissioned Healthcare Computing because it wanted to move to a proactive model of support, in which issues could be identified before they caused downtime for its 80 servers, 37 GP practices and 1,200 users.

Damien McCann, head of primary care IT development at NHS Southampton City, said the project had been successful and the end result excellent.

He added: “We believe the One GP Domain project, along with the associated work, puts Southampton amongst the most technically advanced GP IT estates in the UK.”

McCann said one of the main benefits of the project is that it is now simple to roll out software. This can now be done with a few mouse clicks and means there is no need to disrupt services by going in to every surgery.

He added: “We can manage everything from one central location. We also have a really good foundation that will mean any future changes will be less complex and cheaper to implement.”

Healthcare Computing created a single Active Directory domain covering all sites and created a central console which the PCT can use for deploying software and carrying out backups.

Organisation units have been set up for each GP practice and sub-groups for users based on job function. This means all staff can be viewed from one central place and tasks such as re-setting passwords can be completed immediately.

Dr Bruce Hoghton, a GP at St Mary’s Surgery in Southampton, said the project had been welcomed by GPs.

He added: “We are already feeling the benefits. The recent roll out of the Map of Medicine took place with no interruption at all. The solution just suddenly appeared on my desktop. We are delighted.”