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Remote access gains for Bedford NHS Trust
Case study: About radiology from afar as much as IT fixes at midnight

By Tony Hallett

Published: Tuesday 08 August 2006

Bedford Hospital NHS Trust has revamped its approach to remote access, cutting the cost of IT support staff dialling in to systems as well as trimming its bills for pharmacists and radiologists - often expensive third-party contractors.

Bedford has opted for the Netilla remote access appliance from Scalable Networks. The attraction is partly about price but more to do with simplicity.

Craig Pickard, Bedford's assistant director of IT (operations) said: "It does exactly what it says on the tin."

Previously, an eight-year-old, Ascii-based remote access solution was used to maintain Unix applications. Now the small IT team - there are six full-time members - can securely get to grips with all kinds of requests from afar.

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Getting in health specialists such as radiologists is an expensive overhead and the trust wants them to do so increasingly using the new set-up.

But Pickard said it is not a precursor to remote diagnosis from offshore locations.

He said: "It is not part of our plans. For one thing that would depend on the size of pipes and radiology involves large size images."

The costs to the trust since the upgrade include its broadband connection - covered by wider NHS procurement deals - a one-off fee and a maintenance charge.

The capex was, said Pickard, "lower than expected" and funding for the move comes from the savings that are being made, especially with regard to radiologists.

The deal with Scalable came about because of a recommendation from Newham Healthcare NHS Trust. Bedford is one of the smaller NHS trusts - IT serves just over 2,000 staff and looks after around a thousand points of access, either thin clients or PCs - and it doesn't carry out its own R&D. However, it is already looking at sharing its Scalable experience with a neighbouring NHS body.