A SUITABLE CASE FOR TREATMENT

The old national NHSmail system successfully supported 350,000 users, but was limited in features, restricting collaboration and mobile working. It didn’t encourage use by local NHS organisations, leading to duplication with many parallel local NHS email systems around the country. As well as wasting money and resources, having disparate systems also hindered communication.

Any changes to the existing system had to incorporate seamless migration, with no interruptions that might compromise patient care, plus comprehensive resilience and disaster recovery, effective security and protection against spam and viruses.

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS AND BETTER PATIENT CARE

Cable&Wireless Worldwide implemented migration to Microsoft Exchange 2007, which can accommodate a million users, makes collaboration easier, facilitates mobile working and provides high levels of security for patients’ sensitive data. It’s the only email system in the NHS accredited to Government Restricted level.

Starting in January 2009, we migrated 350,000 accounts across to the new platform in just 11 weeks, with a peak transfer of 47,000 accounts in just 48 hours. This made it the largest, fastest migration of its kind.

An average of 12,000 new users per month are joining the service. Many local NHS authorities are now transferring to the national platform and decommissioning their old local services, saving resources and with a potential monthly email management cost saving of up to 80%.

Every day, around 100,000 NHSmail users send and receive around 1.6 million messages. Allowing staff to send email (including via BlackBerry), fax and SMS messages encourages mobility, speeds up communication and improves patient care. Staff can access a searchable directory of over a million NHS staff, stimulating collaboration between clinicians, which also raises standards of patient care.