Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust press release
Delivering the Foundation for Exceptional Care using World Class Digital Technology
Salford Royal’s vision is to become an internationally recognised NHS provider, delivering exceptional care, through the use of world-class digital technology and information. The overall objectives are:
- Enabling technology – Demonstrating the ability to achieve the highest NHS digital maturity status by applying leading edge technology.
- Optimising digital – Harnessing digital technology to transform care in Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.
- Knowledge sharing – Establishing a Digital Health and Care Centre to share knowledge and provide a platform for wider commercial opportunities.
- Digital transformation – Developing a Digital Experience Centre and Digital Learning Network to support digital transformation.
The current climate
“Block has been instrumental in helping us to plan and prepare for this significant investment into our network. They’ve worked closely with us to make sure that they fully understand our unique needs and challenges, developing a solution that fits with our digital strategy now, and can grow with us in the future.”
Geoff Winrow, Network Manager at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Salford Royal have 50 separate new digital projects on the go that would require supporting new cloud applications, IoT devices and telehealth programs. As well as all of this, the network needed to continue supporting critical business functions, day-to-day workloads and guest Wi-Fi use for patients and visitors.
For digital to deliver, the network infrastructure must be fit for purpose. Supporting digital innovation at this pace and scale meant that Salford Royal needed a health IT network that was more robust, easier to manage and future-proofed.
The challenge
The last major investment in the IT network at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust was in 2008. An assessment indicated 59% of the existing IT Infrastructure was at end-of support, with an additional 90% of hardware reaching end of life within 2 years, which meant the network required a major refresh.
“Block has been instrumental in helping us to plan and prepare for this significant investment into our network. They’ve worked closely with us to make sure that they fully understand our unique needs and challenges, developing a solution that fits with our digital strategy now, and can grow with us in the future.” Geoff Winrow – Network Manager, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
We are delighted to be working with Salford Royal on this project. Our driving purpose is to make a difference, to help our clients to succeed and deliver value to their own stakeholders, so having the opportunity to work with another GDE that shares our passion and values is fantastic.” Marc Chang – CEO, Block
The solution
Over the next 12 months Block will use their proven project methodology to deliver a Next Generation Network for Health and Care:
- Reduced risk with security everywhere – The new network that will act as a sensor, with security policies enforced across the network dynamically as users and devices move around.
- Increases efficiency with simplified automation – Unifying wired and wireless operations will mean that the network can be managed over a centralised dashboard where common access.
- Better visibility & control of the network – The new network will make it much easier to define user access policy and apply the right policies for users or devices to any application, across the network.
- Improved satisfaction with new ways of working – Simple and secure deployment of digital healthcare technologies and Internet of Things (IoT) will allow the Trust to continue to innovate and transform care, now and into the future.
About Block
Block is an IT innovation business, offering expert consultancy, business transformation and managed services that help healthcare organisations to define and achieve their digital aspirations. We combine our deep vertical insight with proven technical expertise, and work in partnership with our clients to deliver impactful, measurable and sustainable business change through technology.
“We are a business built on the quality of our people, taking an approach that means investing time to truly know an organisation as if we were a part of it. Our projects, right from the outset, involve administrators, doctors, nurses, board members and more, allowing us to gain a much deeper understanding of how our technology can be developed to truly improve the patient experience.” Marc Chang – CEO, Block
About Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust are an integrated provider of hospital, community and primary care services, including the University Teaching Trust. Our team of 7,000 staff provide local services to the City of Salford and specialist services to Greater Manchester and beyond.
“The experience that Block has brought to the table from previous NHS network refreshes has been invaluable. Having a partner that believed in our vision, with the same passion for using technology to improve healthcare services as we did, was of significant importance to us.” Rik Wakefield – CTO, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
For a more in-depth look at the Salford Royal Network Upgrade, read the full case study here.
