Paging technology providers: £3m is on the table to replace archaic NHS comms network
- Reference: 1592828105
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/22/nhsx_replace_pagers/
- Source link:
The £3m framework deal on offer is a step in fulfilling [1]a dictum made by UK health secretary Matt Hancock in February 2019 that would require all NHS trusts to stop using pagers by the end of 2021.
The NHS still uses around 130,000 pagers at an annual cost of £6.6m, according to the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC). More than one in 10 of the world's pagers [2]are used by the NHS .
For readers under the age of, say, 30, a pager is a pocket or belt-clipped device which receives local radio signals and bleeps in response to a call message. The devices pre-date cell phone technology and their origins stretch back to the 1950s. In the early days, the recipient did not even know what the message was about – it was just an invitation to call an operator. Now they display some text and suggest a number to call, although the user can't reply.
NHS England claims it will be all-digital within the decade [3]READ MORE
To serve medical professionals effectively, Hancock said the NHS had "to get the basics right, like having computers that work and getting rid of archaic technology like pagers and fax machines".
"Email and mobile phones are a more secure, quicker and cheaper way to communicate which allow doctors and nurses to spend more time caring for patients rather than having to work round outdated kit," he said in 2019. A pilot project at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSFT) in 2017 saved junior doctors 48 minutes per shift and nurses 21 minutes on average, according to DHSC.
The [4]new tender calls for "systems and services" from "suppliers who can deliver against this requirement, whilst promoting innovation and delivering against a digital maturity model".
Mandatory functionality includes secure messaging, image sharing, staff directory (links to the global NHS.net address book), and calls. While meeting a long compliance list, including patient safety regulations, suppliers are also requested to look at options in connecting the communication system to patient lists, task management systems, video calls, and ERP systems.
The Framework Agreement covers "NHS England and Improvement, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Primary Care Networks, NHS Trusts, NHS Special Health Authorities and all other NHS organisations".
[5]After the CMA decided to launch a probe into an anticipated 2017 deal in which Capita would buy Voda’s one-way wide-area-paging business , Voda scrapped the deal with the outsourcer and discontinued its pager service in March 2018. Capita's PageOne is the last remaining national pager network left in the UK, leading to increased costs, the government said.
Pagers are among a list of older technologies still in use, mainly for the reason that they are well liked and serve a very specific function. One doctor told the [6]BBC that the pager system works well in emergencies as it takes less than a minute to send a message to members of a whole team, and, because the network uses its own transmitters and frequencies, there is reliable coverage within buildings. ®
Sponsored: [7]Free Hands-on Training: Kubernetes in Google Cloud
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/health-and-social-care-secretary-bans-pagers-from-the-nhs
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/09/old-technology-nhs-uses-10-of-worlds-pagers-at-annual-cost-of-66m#:~:text=More%20than%20one%20in%2010,cost%20of%20%C2%A36.6m.
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/07/nhs_england_all_digital/
[4] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/100f0132-1c2b-40aa-a79f-f3c91545c448?origin=SearchResults&p=1
[5] https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/capita-vodafone-merger-inquiry
[6] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47332415
[7] https://go.theregister.com/tl/1956/-9042/free-hands-on-training-kubernetes-in-google-cloud?td=wptl1956
Specification Snowball
We need something to replace a simple pager = simple just needs some old Nokias and sms.
Then everybody involved will add their own requirement because otherwise how do they justify being involved.
So as well as text messages it will have to be able to send 4d video and feature smello-vision
Security is important so it will have to be designed from scratch to the highest levels of military grade magic and so use no COTS parts
It will need to interoperate with 6 other "not yet totally designed" emergency services comms systems.
It will have to be built by approved suppliers in several deprived areas by companies whose brother in law is a cabinet minister
It will be delivered late, if at all, won't work and the handset will have a battery life of 10mins and will need a fork lift to lift.
Re: Specification Snowball
And in the meantime, the existing equipment can remain in use as it works just fine.
20 years later: Are we still using those bloody pagers?
Re: Specification Snowball
And why we will still be using fax.
Because the email replacement doesn't meet SecureIT2020 (tm) standard while supporting that non-standard DICOM from that single 1970s scanner and allow somebody in Shetland to view 4d ultrasound on a 2G connection
Back in Time Technology Rides Again
Pagers, another shuffle down memory lane, I did not work for the NHS so my use was long, long ago. They had one advantage, not always being personal devices they used to be given to the on-call person of the moment. Batteries also lasted a long time as I remember, not just half a day.
Re: Back in Time Technology Rides Again
And the signal works everywhere, and the network doesn't collapse in an emergency, and they don't need a security update every 5mins.
Re: Back in Time Technology Rides Again
That's exactly it. If all you need is a device which is simple to use and can say "person on duty, please attend / call / wake up now", the pager is ideal. I used to carry one and the single AAA battery would last at least a couple of weeks.
If you need more than that, equip people with a basic mobile phone.
Sometimes a particular application has a specific, already-working solution. Why change it?
M.
Re: Back in Time Technology Rides Again
>Sometimes a particular application has a specific, already-working solution. Why change it?
Because idiots like new shiny stuff.
Just Works
Pagers may be out of fashion, but they one big advantage: They work. Mobile signal across hospitals can be terrible whereas the signal for pagers just gets through fine.
My local hospital has spent a seven figure sum to get mobile signal across all their buildings.
The NHS - uniquely the same
as every other health service. Sick people in. Fixed people out the front, unfixed out the back. Exactly the same as everywhere else. I could do this project in a week. $SearchEngineVerb the most commonly used hospital staff comms system deployed this century, across the G20 countries. Place order.
Re: The NHS - uniquely the same
Well why don’t you apply for the funding and pocket the cash after giving them a cheap reliable service, if I was in the situation of doing that I would rather than boasting I could on a forum.
"email is more secure" - what planet are they from.
The 160MHz carrier and it's ability to penetrate walls and go round corners is the magic that is going to be very hard to replace.
IMHO the NHS is big enough that it should be able to use bespoke products as their end user population for almost anything is large enough to generate economies of scale. If they were to take the opportunity to add some marginal improvements to the existing pager system then they would have a device that others with similar coverage issues would adopt.
Pager the next generation...
Is there a system for sending SMS over some low bandwidth unlicensed band to small dumb battery powered devices?
It worked well because
Crapita and Vodafone hadn't broken it.