Industry
Communications, Media and Information Services
Connect. Curate. Comprehend: Unlocking Value Beyond Boundaries
Highlights
- The United Kingdom planned to open six emergency facilities to cope with the growing pressure on the UK’s National Health Services (NHS) during COVID. One such facility, the London NHS Nightingale Hospital, was opened on April 3, 2020.
- Unhindered power supply, design and architectural specifications, patient safety procedures, and robust telecommunications were just a few of the many imperatives the facility wanted for smooth functioning.
- TCS, as a partner of Openreach for over 12 years, helped build the ‘super priority’ circuit for the hospital in just one day.
In this article
Feeling the pressure of a global emergency
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a state of urgency in public services, particularly healthcare. As nations the world over struggle to cope with an increase in the number of infected patients, there has been a visible shortage of medical resources, including facilities, personnel and equipment.
The UK’s National Health Services (NHS), planned six emergency facilities during the pandemic. The customer opened the London NHS Nightingale Hospital, one of the emergency facilities, on April 3, 2020. NHS built the hospital within nine days, at ExCel London, an exhibition and convention center in London. The hospital has the capacity to hold over 4,000 beds. NHS designed the facility amidst concern that their hospitals could be overwhelmed with the increasing number of patients.
The Challenge: Tall order, short span of time
As an existing space was being repurposed to serve as an emergency health facility, NHS needed to address several concerns. These included unhindered power supply, overseeing design and architectural specifications and patient safety procedures, and robust telecommunications. Managing all the concerns under tight timelines was a key challenge.
Openreach—the UK-based telecommunications giant—was assigned the task of providing network connectivity within the London NHS Nightingale Hospital. It looked to TCS for the design of a critical network circuit for this. TCS has been a partner of Openreach for over 12 years, building business networks that connect thousands of schools, hospitals, financial institutions, mobile masts and large businesses in the UK. It designs Openreach’s fiber broadband and copper network for millions of such premises across the country.
The Solution: super priority circuit
The ‘super priority’ circuit for the hospital was designed within just one day. The primary focus when building the circuit was to ensure it had resilient back-up options. It was decided that an ethernet access direct circuit (EAD) be designed to provide point-to-point data connectivity between sites in the healthcare provider’s network—including their supply chain, emergency services such as paramedic teams, and administrative headquarters. The circuit would also enable a variety of critical activities such as connecting the Nightingale to other hospitals, linking patient records in real time, enabling WiFi for medical devices, linking at least 1,000 voice-over-internet phones, and providing cellular connectivity to help on-duty medical staff stay connected to each other.
The benefit: All set in 24 hours
Despite the UK and India going into lockdown, teams across both locations mobilized all resources to execute the task. The teams functioned remotely to help lay the foundation for the digital communications infrastructure, to support the new medical facility. While fiber network experts worked through the night to complete the design, a systems assurance team continually monitored it. The implementation was successful and helped create an ultra-fast WiFi network, that went live within 24 hours.
Reporting on the swift establishment of the Nightingale, a BBC news article stated that “in nine days, the 87,328 square metres of double exhibition halls have been fitted out with the framework for about 80 wards, each with 42 beds”, and that “some 500 fully-equipped beds, with oxygen and ventilators, are already in place and there is space for another 3,500”. The news report also mentioned that were the Nightingale to reach capacity, it would be among the largest hospitals in the world.
What Made it happen
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