Scaling up of technology during the COVID-19 pandemic

All our staff at The Health Informatics Service have been working around the clock to ensure our staff are equipped to be able to work from home and be able to carry out their daily tasks.

To meet the current and potential demand on remote services we configured and enabled 4GB of additional bandwidth over-night.

To support all users when working remotely we have configured, implemented and tested a new Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology, increasing our potential concurrent users to 5000, plus Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) sessions and enabled circa 700 concurrent connections on the existing VPN solution. To support our users across multiple care settings we implemented an existing VDI platform, which in turn reduced a 4 month project to deploying within a week.

To build these VDI platforms we utilise 3 pieces of software; vSphere, VDI Horizon Connection Manager and AppStack.

• VSphere is used to create, develop and update the Windows Operating System
• VDI Horizon Connection Manager is where pools are created of the virtual machines per organisation, per department or even per user depending on what the use case is for the virtual machine is.
• AppStack allows us to create virtual applications that are specific to a set department.

200 laptops were built and rolled out to enable our full time desk located staff to be able to work from home and protect colleagues. In addition to this we supplied 483 webcams for GP virtual consultations to enable a safer experience for patients.

We have deployed kit to stand up 14 COVID-19 Primary Care Hotsites/Hubs for 4 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) in order to deliver services to patients showing symptoms without them going to their standard GP surgery.

And last but certainly not least, 8 LOWs for additional ICU capacity.

Scaling up all this technology certainly wasn’t a walk in the park but everyone involved has done a fantastic job in getting everything ready for our own staff and customers to ensure we are equipped for working from home which allows us to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Please remember to follow the government guidelines. Stay at home, protect the NHS, and save lives.

Published by Sophie Thomas on 05.05.2020. Written with the support of Peter Howson and Rebecca Wootton.