Computerworld

New £430m hospital deploys advanced Alcatel-Lucent network

Wireless network plus 14,000 LAN ports going in

The North Bristol NHS Trust is building a next generation network to improve patient care with NextiraOne and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise for its new £430 million hospital.

The new hospital in Southmead, Bristol will use the network infrastructure to take advantage of the world's most advanced medical services and communications.

North Bristol NHS Trust is the fifth-largest NHS Trust in England and the single largest NHS Trust in the south-west. Its new hospital is due to open in spring 2014, and is expected to see 8,000 new patients, visitors and staff arrive at the hospital each month.

The network will use Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 10K and OmniSwitch 6900 switches with a 40 Gig core. As well as providing an extensive wireless network to the trust, 14,000 LAN ports will also be installed around the hospital to be used by staff, patients and visitors.

NextiraOne is deploying and managing the network as the trust's strategic infrastructure partner under a framework agreement over a minimum of five years.

Mark Osborne, head of ICT at North Bristol NHS Trust, said, "So many critical aspects of our patient care are running through the network. Alcatel-Lucent has worked with us to keep our development as open as possible, to enable us to integrate the best solutions for patient care on the market."

Advanced patient care services include robotic vehicles being used for drug delivery.