The background

South West Communications Group deploys video conferencing communications technology to North Bristol NHS Trust to help optimise staff productivity and patient consulting time.

North Bristol NHS Trust is the fifth largest healthcare trust in England serving a large urban and rural geographic area from Bristol and South Gloucestershire right down to Cornwall for its specialist services. From 2 acute teaching hospitals at Southmead and Frenchay, the Trust employs around 9,000 staff to provide services to approximately 1 million people every year. The Trust is currently developing a private finance initiative (PFI) project at its Southmead site to provide a new £430 million, 800-bed ‘super hospital’. This hospital, which is due to open in 2014, will be a world-class facility.

The challenge

Construction of the new 1 million square feet Southmead Hospital was just a part of North Bristol NHS Trust’s vision of becoming the first digital trust in the UK. The Trust remains keen to embrace a whole raft of technology, including a new 7,000-user IP telephone system and associated applications provided by South West Communications Group, to enhance its working practices and to improve the patient experience as a whole.

The Trust also wanted to implement a VC solution that would optimise staff productivity and patient consulting time by providing conference room and desk-based communication solutions between its two hospital sites and further afield to help reduce the need to travel, while also supporting its teaching obligations.

Travel between the Frenchay and Southmead sites had been a regular requirements for medical students and clinical and support staff, and although the sites are only 5 miles apart, employees would need to allow 45 minutes to commute either way during rush hour times. Additionally, many of the Trust’s employees who work outside of Bristol had to travel to the city for weekly meetings.

The Trust therefore required a solution that would be effective and reliable enough to reduce the need for in-person meetings, including satellite units that could be used by employees working off-site in smaller locations. The Trust was insistent that the solution would be easy to use to encourage staff to adopt the technology immediately.

The solution

South West Communications Group supplied and installed a LifeSize VC solution and associated audio visual equipment to meet North Bristol NHS Trust’s needs. This solution comprised:

• LifeSize VC systems for 7 locations
• A LifeSize Transit server for Internet-based worldwide VC
• LifeSize Control software for easy management
• Support of learning & research department
• On-site training
• Ongoing support

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