South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has been chosen to be an early adopter for NHS WiFi, a national scheme to roll out free WiFi across the entire NHS estate.
The NHS WiFi project will provide patients, service users and the public with access to WiFi in NHS buildings in England by the start of 2019. The first phase of the programme was to make NHS WiFi available in GP practices and urgent care settings during 2017/18. The second phase spanning 2018/19 is to include mental health and community organisations as well as secondary care.
The Trust registered its interest in becoming an early adopter which was successful. As a result, the South West Yorkshire Partnership has been allocated national money to roll out NHS WiFi. It will be installed wherever the provider has regular client-facing contact by 31 March 2018.
The Trust said: “Early feedback from the programme has been positive. Access to WiFi has made a real difference to the lives of service users on the ward at Newton Lodge. It’s enabled them to bid for social housing, manage bank accounts and shop online.”
Paul Foster, head of IT services and systems development, said: “This work will provide our patients, service users and public with secure, stable, and reliable WiFi capability across the Trust sites, which will be consistent with the required national standards. It will allow patients and the public to browse the internet and access health and care information. We’re delighted that our Trust has been chosen as a ‘fast follower’ and the IT team will now be working with our IT Service provider, the Daisy Group to roll this out. Staff may notice colleagues from IT in their buildings doing some minor works but these should not cause any disruption.”
