Another Welsh board rolls out free wi-fi

Hywel Dda University Health Board is rolling out free wi-fi to patients, staff and visitors, with plans to provide tablets to chemotherapy and dialysis patients during their treatment.

Anthony Tracey, the board’s interim assistant director of informatics, said it wanted to provide patients and visitors with “the best access and experience when visiting our hospitals”, while also improving staff operations.

Tracey said the board is initially focussing on rolling out wi-fi at nine key locations, including five hospitals. It will roll out access at other sites over the next 12 months.

Patients in the board’s chemotherapy day units and renal units will also be given tablets to use while receiving their treatment, Tracey added.

The provision of effective wi-fi networks has become a topic of debate in the NHS, with both staff and patient groups lobbying for better access.

Last year, EHI Intelligence commissioned GP Marcus Baw to run a second edition of his nationwide survey on wi-fi use in the NHS, in conjunction with NHS Hackday, OpenGPSoC and HANDI.

The results found that access was up on the earlier survey, with 51% of respondents saying they had access at their place of work. However, it wasn’t up that much, since 28% had said the same the previous year.

In addition, only 30% of respondents could connect with their own devices, and 23% said they had not been given the work devices that their networks were restricted to.

The Cloud says it is the fastest growing wi-fi provider in the Welsh health sector, with public wi-fi currently provided at three other university health boards: Abertawe Bro Morgannwg, Aneurin Bevan and Cwm Taf.

Roger Matthews, commercial director of The Cloud, said mobile devices are becoming “more and more central to healthcare” for both patients and staff.

“In healthcare in particular, mobile devices can be used to improve the patient or visitor experience – allowing people to communicate with friends and family as they recover.

“Similarly, staff can use tablets to provide great care, viewing x-rays and test results on devices, for example.”