BT hits 18,000 N3 connections ahead of schedule
BT has announced that it has successfully reached the 18,000 N3 broadband connections across the NHS, hitting its milestone two months ahead of schedule. The 18,000 plus N3 connections means that N3 now covers nearly 97% of UK GPs and one million NHS staff. Connecting for Health had initially set BT an April deadline to connect 18,000 sites […]
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Patients to rate care received using new NHS website
The government is to set up a new website to allow patients to publish and share reviews of care recived from GPs and hospitals. Patients will be able to post detailed reviews of their experiences in their GP surgery or of their hospital appointments, in a similar style to restaurant reviews. The aim of the website is […]
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Don’t pay for additional N3 bandwidth, PCTs told
Primary care trusts (PCTs) have been told that current N3 broadband links provide enough bandwidth to run all Connecting for Health applications and that no local top ups should be necessary in most cases. The newly-published guidance, which sets out the requirements for IT infrastructure now and in the future, makes it clear that in […]
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Discussions underway on 8Mb broadband for GPs
NHS Connecting for Health is in discussions with N3 BT about providing an 8Mb broadband service which could provide GP practices with faster broadband speeds. The DH’s central IT agency is also advising N3 customers not to order any upgrade because of concerns over performance issues “at this time.” EHI Primary Care understands that the […]
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BT investigates slow connections for GPs
N3 provider BT has been investigating ways in which it might improve its service for GP practices using the EMIS computer system which have been struggling with slow connection speeds to their branch surgeries. EHI Primary Care understands that BT has been running experiments on alternative configurations and that solutions identified by that work will […]
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Choose and Book system fails nationally
Unspecified technical problems led to Choose and Book, the NHS’s new national appointment booking service, being unavailable to users for much of yesterday. According to service bulletins issued yesterday NHS Connecting for Health, the agency responsible for the electronic booking system: “The Choose and Book system is currently experiencing degraded service. Users of the system […]
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N3 Internet gateway fails across NHS
Users of the NHS broadband network across England were left unable to access the internet for about two hours on Tuesday due to a problem with the internet gateway. The failure left NHS users unable to access the web-based version of Choose and Book or web-based clinical knowledge sources. The fault is believed to have […]
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NHS broadband network provider wins ISO accreditation
BT has announced that its NHS New National Network service provider arm (N3SP), the unit within BT responsible for building and supporting the broadband network for the NHS has achieved ISO 20000 accreditation for effective IT service management. N3 is the broadband infrastructure for the £12.4 billion NHS National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT). ISO […]
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CfH GP group to discuss N3 speed problems
GP practices’ concerns about N3 are to be discussed at the next meeting of NHS Connecting for Health’s GP Pan User Group (GP PUG). Dr Gillian Braunold, joint GP national clinical lead for CfH, told EHI Primary Care that N3 will be on the agenda at the pan user group’s January meeting. Last week EHI […]
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Fair Deal on Broadband: BT responds
When E-Health Insider Primary Care launched Fair Deal on Broadband, we asked BT to give its perspective on the issues raised and the particular problems encountered on the ground in primary care. Here is the company’s response, in full, sent by a BT spokesperson: N3 is the enabling infrastructure that underpins the national applications being […]
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