GPsecure secures NHS N3 network connections between GP surgeries and their primary care trusts

(03/07/2009)

Hytec, part of OLM Group, has announces the availability of GPsecure, a new solution to secure NHS N3 network connections between GP surgeries and their primary care trusts (PCTs).

GPsecure will help PCTs meet NHS Connecting for Health guidelines to ensure that GP surgeries within their trusts are electronically secure. While N3 is a private network, the integrity of its data depends on its users having secure connections.

“Information security within primary care is something that the general public cares deeply about,” said Alan Hunt, Hytec’s Technical Director. “The Information Commissioner’s Office has taken action against a number of PCTs recently because of lax data security. The NHS N3 network is not inherently secure, and PCTs must act to protect patient data and their legacy applications.”

GPsecure is in use at Kensington and Chelsea PCT. As well as addressing its concerns about security of patient data, the trust has benefited from cost savings because GPsecure enables secure remote IT support. “We can control what we roll out to each practice,” explained Iftikhar Din, Kensington and Chelsea’s IM&T Manager. “Before we would have had to send engineers to every practice; now we can perform upgrades and provide remote support. Instead of taking hours we can often fix problems in minutes.”

With additional hardware, GPsecure also enables GPs to benefit from secure remote access to their practice patient data, allowing them to do paperwork at home and even access patients’ notes during home visits.

Hytec has designed the GPsecure appliance to be small, virtually silent and compliant with relevant information governance standards from NHS Connecting for Health. GPsecure hardware runs Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006. “Hytec concluded that only Microsoft technology met all the product needs for security, ease of operational management and remote access by GPs,” said Peter Askew, Microsoft’s Industry Business Development Manager for healthcare.

Related topics:  Data management and data security   Internet and Web security   Mobile and Wireless Security   Network Security   Security management and policies 

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