Rotherham NHS ups network access security

Rotherham NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) has improved network security using integration software to match staff records with systems access.

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Rotherham PCT IT infrastructure manager Derek Stowe said the organisation was already using business recovery systems from Quest Software, which identified a discrepancy between the number of user accounts and the number of employees listed on the HR system.

He said: "This posed quite a security problem. It turned out that the organisation's systems were potentially open to non-employees. The NHS is constantly in a state of change as staff move jobs or leave the profession. We weren't getting notification of employees leaving the trust, so their systems accounts were remaining live."

The trust has now implemented Quest's ActiveRoles Server, which integrates its Microsoft Active Directory network management system with the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) database, a mandatory data store that all NHS organisations have to contribute to.

Rotherham PCT started to implement ESR last April and went live with the system in the following September.

Stowe said: "We looked at the Connecting for Health integration solution but it is based on a Novell infrastructure, so that would have meant completely replacing directory services. The Quest system is much more flexible."

Stowe explained that since the system has been up and running, the two to three days it takes to update the trust's system access has been reduced to nothing, with new joiners receiving their access codes automatically. On the other end, employees who leave have their access terminated without any manual input.

According to Stowe, the reduction of work is equivalent to a year's workload of one person.

Stowe could not give a specific level of investment, but it is believed the system cost a five-figure sum.