Southern GPs migrate to Windows 7

Hundreds of GP practices across the south of England are migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 under a programme lead by Healthcare Computing.

The migrations are taking place across more than 400 southern practices ahead of support for Windows XP being withdrawn this April.

Dr Mark Bettley-Smith from Madeira Medical Centre said: “we understood the necessity of changing to Windows 7 and were keen to do so especially with the risks of staying on Windows XP after Microsoft support ends.

“We were really pleased with the upgrade to Windows 7 providing more functionality and easier day to day productivity and Healthcare Computing kept the disruption to a minimum.”

The need to upgrade to Windows 7 has been looming over the NHS for years, but has been delayed in some cases due to the NHS restructure and budget constraints.

Richard Hiett, head of service delivery at Healthcare Computing, said the company is working with customers to migrate practices with as little interruption to services as possible.

“We have some challenging timescales to deploy Windows 7 across the south of England and we are working with our customers to ensure this is completed as quickly as possible,” he said.

“The deployment is critical to ensure Microsoft security patches and support is continued within GP surgeries after April this year.”