Primary Care WIFI
A free, public WIFI service was implemented in City and Hackney practices in 2017/18. Networks are available to staff and visitors to enable them to access the internet, send and receive emails, and download and access medical applications.
The service was commissioned by the CCG following a directive from NHS Digital. On the CCG’s behalf, NEL CSU initially carried out a mini-procurement and subsequently managed the implementation by the service provider Egton.
The WIFI Policy and Egton Terms & Conditions are included in the downloads section of this webpage.
Available Networks (SSIDs)
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SSID
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Connectivity
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Credentials Required
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Access Provided
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Types of devices that can use this network
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NHS WIFI
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Public ADSL
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No
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Unsecured Internet Access for Patients and the general public. Bandwidth is limited.
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Patient’s personal devices
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Guest (CDB Number)
e.g Guest 1234
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Public ADSL
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Yes. Username and Password. A generic username and password provided for each site that allow concurrent access to the internet.
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Provide internet access with no bandwidth restrictions.
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Staff member, visiting GP and Health Professional’s personal devices.
Tele-derm iPhone.
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NHS Secure (CDB Number)
e.g NHS Secure 1234
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HSCN
(through the practices primary connection)
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Yes. Username and Password
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Provides access to Practice LAN (if permissions granted in Active Directory), Clinical application and internet access.
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NEL CSU/Egton managed devices only.
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NHS City & Hackney CCG
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HSCN
(through the practices primary connection)
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Yes. Username and Password (these are the same as the credentials used to access the Secure network)
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Provides access to Clinical system from any GP site for GP’s and practice staff. Also internet access. It does not provide access to a practice Local Area Network (LAN)
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NEL CSU/Egton managed devices only.
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* If your practice is co-located you may not be able to see all of these networks for each practices CDB code. Egton will be able to confirm details of your network configuration.
Support and administration
Support for technical faults with any of the WIFI networks can accessed through the Egton helpdesk:
Requests for login credentials to enable users to connect to either of the secure networks should be submitted to Egton by the practice manager or nominated practice change authority for the WIFI. The excel Egton Practice WIFI User Registration Form is available from the downloads section of this page and can be submitted via the email address or online portal listed above.
If the practice notices that there are areas of the building that are not covered by the WIFI signal, i.e. you can’t see the networks listed in the WIFI setting of your device or only have one or two bars, you should contact Thomas Clark who can authorise a survey to determine whether additional access points are needed. Please provide details of the areas of the building which are not covered. There is a cost associated with this so please consider whether having WIFI signal coverage is essential for the practice to operate.
Business Continuity planning
In the event that the practice experiences issues with IT infrastructure that impact service delivery, particularly relating to internet connectivity, the WIFI networks may help reduce the impact.
If there was a problem with the practices primary HSCN connection, the fact that the guest network is served by an entirely separate broadband connection should help the practice to maintain a degree of access to EMIS Web using laptops and VPN tokens previously deployed by the CCG. For this reason the generic user name and password for the guest network (these have been previously communicated by Egton and the CCG) should be documented in business continuity plans and tested periodically to ensure that it is accessible.
It is also recommended that practices request usernames and passwords for key staff to be able to access the secure network.
