Fife Acute Hospitals Introduce New Network

Fife Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has begun introducing a new Citrix-based IT network across its four main sites.

The network, provided by Channel One, a business division of VisionWare Plc, is being administered by Fujitsu Siemens Computers, the project’s prime contractor, and an authorised supplier through the GCAT procurement scheme.

Health professionals at Fife will be able to access and record key patient information securely together with a range of desktop applications.

Channel One will provide Fife Acute Hospitals with a 900-user server-based computer network using Citrix MetaFrame XP which will enable the trust’s IT applications to be managed using a scalable and flexible architecture.

The new network replaces an unwieldy out of date IT infrastructure that required significant effort to add each new user to the system.

Implementing the new IT infrastructure is expected to lead to reduced cost of ownership; faster software roll outs; reduced hardware and software maintenance along with reduced support costs.

Donald Wilson, acting head of IT at Fife Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said, “Ultimately, Citrix’s server-based computing architecture will enable us to deliver significant, rapid improvements in our NHS service delivery.”

Gordon Cooper, managing director of VisionWare plc added, “Using Citrix as the backbone of NHS Fife IT strategy will ensure a seamless and fast flow of patient information, enabling better delivery of patient care."

The new hardware infrastructure comprises of 30 rack mounted L200 Primegy servers from Fujitsu Siemens. The racks have been factory pre-configured and shipped directly to the customer site ready to install.