NHS deal could point way to universal broadband

New Lancashire NHS network could be used to deliver a host of online services to remote areas

NHS poised to become an ISP

A new deal that will see eight Lancashire NHS trusts supplied with a high powered broadband network could mark the first commercially viable means of broadband rollout to remote rural areas.

About 10 per cent of the population are not yet connected to broadband and it is a goal of all political parties to extend broadband to everyone – however it has not been clear up until now how this would be made commercially viable.

This deal could be a significant step towards making the vision of universal access a reality, with the NHS becoming an internet service provider for the first time.

The rollout will cost the trusts about £9m between them and give them access to a 10Gbit/s core network – more than 100 times the bandwidth provided by the previous infrastructure.

Associate director for information management and technology at Lancashire NHS trust foundation Declan Hadley said: “Because all the trusts have clubbed together, this network costs no more than the previous networks cost to lay – we are benefitting from economies of scale.”

The Virgin Media Business network, which encompasses 200 buildings in every part of the council, will take between two and three years to complete, and was started three months ago.

Hadley argued that the NHS could let the county council piggy back on the infrastructure, allowing it to provide online services to hard-to-reach parts of Lancashire in a model that could be copied by other regions. “We could also run a WiMax service over the network to provide rural residents with high quality wireless,” he added.

Hadley went on to explain that working with local councils posed no problem for the trusts: “We have always worked with local councils, but in these economic times everyone is looking for the best way to share services and save themselves money.”

When asked whether this would make the NHS money, he said: “Well, potentially, but that is not a motivator for us - it is more about helping to provide high quality public services.”

The trusts have approached the Rural Development Authority regarding potential access to European funding to enable further build out of the network. They are waiting to hear about whether they qualify.

The network will also enable telemedicine, or medicine carried out in the home via videoconferencing.