Two thirds of clinicians believe that having access to wi-fi would improve patient care, the first results of an ongoing nationwide survey on wi-fi in hospitals have suggested.
The NHS Hack Day community created the survey to find out how many clinicians have access to wi-fi, how many patients have access, and how this impacts patient care.
The survey is being run jointly by NHS Hackday, OpenGPSoC and HANDI. It was set up after discussions on the hack day’s Google group showed that most hospitals did not have free wi-fi access for clinicians and several complained that this was stifling app innovation.
Commenting on the Google group, Dr Marcus Baw, a locum GP who set up the survey, said that non-consultant doctors, who provide the majority of staffing in hospitals, are not given access to wi-fi.
“Oh yes there are networks, there’s hardly a corridor in my hospital without a Cisco router nailed to the roof, but they seem to be for managerial types and possibly consultants. Not the likes of me,” he said.
The survey, which is the first step in a campaign towards free wi-fi for clinicians, will run until further notice.
So far, results from 538 respondents show that 149 have no wi-fi network whatsoever in their place of work. A further 125 have said that their organisation has a free wi-fi network, but they do not have access to it.
Only 127 have said that they have access to wi-fi in the clinical setting in which they work.
Archive.org: NHS Hack Day presses for free wi-fi | Digital Health