back to article Free Wi-Fi for the NHS, promises health secretary Jeremy Hunt

The NHS is apparently being given an early Christmas present of £1bn for free Wi-Fi across all hospitals, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said today. Cash is being made available from a £1bn to improve patchy Wi-Fi services in hospitals, he said. It claimed turning on free Wi-Fi access across the NHS estate could …

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  1. Vimes

    How much of that wifi will require handing over personal details first and having the connection monitored so it could be filtered, even if you were never asked whether the filtering was wanted in the first place?

    On the rare occasions I've seen wifi in hospitals it has always been filtered and never has the option to switch the filtering off. I'd be interested to know the proposed standards behind what should happen with the filtering and what options - if any - people can expect to switch the filtering off.

    1. Tony S
      Big Brother

      @Vimes

      That did occur to me; but primarily because I immediately thought that they would be monitoring user activity and then trying to either flog the data to someone; or to use it to "sell" additional services.

      ("Hey Mr. Patient, I see you have been treated for cancer, why take up our additional bi-annual testing service to catch it if it returns; just £39.95 a month")

      Just because I'm cynical, doesn't mean the buggers haven't thought of this.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The NHS offers that testing for free but that won't stop companies trying to stick their oar in.

        The wi-fi on the chemo ward I was on was patchy during the day and usually fast enough to stream SD content in the night. Not a patch on the 4G dongle I brought with me though.

        Seriously ill patients won't be able to take advantage, it would be mostly the walking wounded or medical staff using tablets (or consoles in every room?). Unless untrained family members are suppose to be filling it in?

        Given the small novels hanging off the end of every bed on my ward the apps would have a long way to go before they replace the dead trees.

        Then there is all the security that will surround this and won't be slurrped by anyone ^^

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          To the thumb down, I'd be curious to know what you disagree with.

        2. geekguy

          The paperless office is a myth perpetuated by those who do not understand technology or the backup systems it requires.

    2. patrick_bateman

      Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

      No person information is required.

      You are just a keyboard warrior that believes they have a point but no facts.

      Here at HHFT, we run Wifi Spark, a 3rd part managed wifi service.

      Yes there are filters, Yes you cant take them off. Do you want the man.woman sitting next to you in a waiting room to be watching porn on the hospital wifi??!?!?? I don't!

      To connect to our wifi, simply enable wifi on your device, select the Wifi Spark SSID, your device will then load a portal page where it asks for a name and email address, here you can type in anything you want I.e. me@me.com. IWontGiveyou@mename.com.

      The details are accepted and you are provided free (filtered wifi) so you can view you TV catchup, facebook, ebay, just no gabling, porn or illegal activity.

      So are we going to get credit, as our hospital payed for this before this money got handed out.

      people go on about filtered this and filtered that and how daire they monitor me.

      its not your home, you haven't payed for it

      This is to protect not only yourself but the people around you.

      Don't moan at something that's is being provided free to you simply because your too cheap to go buy a decent data plan or moaning that this and that isn't good enough.

      Do you realise how much patient care can be provided for £1BN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????? but nooo, you want your frekin unfiltered none monitor wifi

      tw@t

      1. johnfbw

        Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

        patrick_bateman

        Thank you for your advert for your company which ask users to step through additional pointless steps. How about you don't ask for user names and let people get onto your un-secured wifi quicker?

        1. patrick_bateman

          Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

          because at the end of the day, it comes down to legality. if you actively type something into a box you are aware you are doing it thus, if you start torrenting or porning and they end up blocking you then you complain, the 3rd party service which DOESNT PUSH ADDS ATALL can say be have blocked you because you have abused this free service, you knew about it, so thus your blocked.

          1. Vimes

            Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

            it comes down to legality

            I agree. And whatever the ISPs want us to believe filtering without consent is illegal.

            if you actively type something into a box you are aware you are doing it

            Checking a checkbox and clicking 'I agree' seems a lot simpler, but then I'm not the ones apparently more interested in harvesting email addresses than providing a clean interface.

            if you start torrenting or porning

            'Porning'. Interesting new verb there.

            In any case porn - regardless of whether it's wanted or not - is for the most part COMPLETELY LEGAL.

            1. Stuart 22

              Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

              "In any case porn - regardless of whether it's wanted or not - is for the most part COMPLETELY LEGAL."

              Filtering for illegality is good. Indeed the hospital should feel it an obligation. The hospital should implicitly be acting in loco parentis for minors so there is a case of applying adult only filters for the young. But the key words are in loco parentis. For adults it shouldn't apply. It is up to us to choose how we use this facility as we would at home subject to some reasonable limit on quantity.

              This is not the same as workplace or most other provisions. People are, mostly, involuntarily living in hospitals rather than at home. What they read, what they write and what they view on their tablets should be of no concern to the hospital. Only that it isn't an unreasonable burden on the public purse.

              It isn't the Nanny Health Service.

            2. patrick_bateman

              Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

              yer man, porning, like family guy said, doing a porn, innit lol

              the harvesting factor, not my issues, I have never typed my real email address into a system first off, always see what a fake one can do for you... its the naive and gullibility of 'normal users'

              whilst you are correct porn is legally allowed, when entering a hospital or other privately owned public area you as a person in that area agree to T&C's.

              i.e. we cant ever throw you out of a hospital, but you can be asked to leave, and with the police there;' escorted off site' if you are deemed to be causing issues for other staff.,

              1. This post has been deleted by its author

              2. ukgnome

                Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

                Oh dear dear patrick_bateman where or where to begin with your diatribe.

                I feel a few people may judge you harshly, and I am indeed one of them. You come across as 'one of those complainers that jumps to their keyboard' ready to spew forth your crap.

                You are a keyboard warrior that whilst seemingly presenting facts has managed not only to contradict themselves but also has become the person you wanted to have a go at. A free service is seldom free, and I am sure that you feel you have a valid point. But your analogy is at least as dumb as a shed full hammers. Any system that asks you to register, even with fake info is doing it for a reason. The paranoid among us will decry this is so they can track us.

                Clearly you are not technically minded, but that's OK because in these times you can simply turn to the fifteen year old sat next to you in A&E who happens to be watching porn and he will explain this all to you in a series of grunts that only a true ID ten T could understand.

              3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

                Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

                "its the naive and gullibility of 'normal users'"

                Or even the sick, vulnerable, elderly, mentally ill, many of which might well be your "customers", to whom the hospital has a duty of care.

        2. patrick_bateman

          Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

          I work for the NHS, not Wifi Spark :)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

        I seriously hope I never have the misfortune of needing any hospital you work at!

        1. patrick_bateman

          Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

          Yes I am with you, think of all that extra patient care we could of provided if we didn't need to put this stupid patient wifi system in.

          ha! you make me laugh

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

            "could of provided" "COULD'VE provided", please

      3. Stuart 22

        Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

        "Yes there are filters, Yes you cant take them off. Do you want the man.woman sitting next to you in a waiting room to be watching porn on the hospital wifi??!?!?? I don't!"

        Why do you care? For some (too many?) its the only sexual fulfilment they may get. Personally I find the average episode of Top Gear does more damage to the mind and planet but I wouldn't ban it.

        On the other hand it is quite reasonable to limit the quantities of both. If it is a public service paid by all of us then it is not unjust to stop the guys who claim a Terabyte or two per month is not enough to live on. So provide a reasonable service limited only in quantity and stop worrying about how people choose to use it. My hospital should not be my moral guardian.

        Well until one starts googling one's symptoms of course ;-)

      4. Vimes

        Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard @patrick_bateman

        No person information is required.

        [...]

        To connect to our wifi, simply enable wifi on your device, select the Wifi Spark SSID, your device will then load a portal page where it asks for a name and email address

        ...which most people would just enter without questioning it.

        You don't see the contradiction there?

        1. patrick_bateman

          Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard @patrick_bateman

          No contradiction, people are just gullible under the pretence of authority.

          a police officer asks for your name, you will give it.... yet if I am not in a car then I don't simply have to hand over that information.

          I cant answer for people who don't have common sense or how the world works now...

          again, you can type whatever you like in here, it will just accept it, thus no personal information

          hay , lets ask for the persons bank cards and their mothers maiden name,

          what pop band they like.

          they freely give this information over to google, facebook and alike...

      5. Captain Hogwash
        Pint

        Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

        I don't care about the man but, yes. Yes I do want the woman sitting next to me in the waiting room to be watching porn on the hospital wifi.

      6. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

        Did you mean "you're"?

      7. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

        This is the sort of ham-fisted "Won't anyone think of the children?" attitude that I detest.

        I run a respected ratings site for horse racing and you are telling me that for my own protection I can't even log onto my own site?

        AC because I am not an advertising whore.

      8. BongoJoe
        Big Brother

        Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

        Will your censorship prevent patients looking up their symptoms and treatments, particularly images, if they have medical issues with their own genitalia?

      9. geekguy

        Re: Your just a complainer who jumps to their keyboard

        The simple fact is if you use a free wifi connection provided by someone other than yourself then you have to accept they have terms and conditions and filters in place, if you don't want that you simply don't have to use it or can use your own data connection such as 4g.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Just hope

      It won't filter your name if it is Willie, Dick, Fanny etc.,

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Self-diagnosing or self-monitoring patients? Why not go the whole hog and give them the scalpel so they can perform their own surgery while there at it? After all, with free Wi-Fi they'll be able to google on how to do it themselves.

    I think most patients would rather the money was spent on, oh I don't know... more nurses, perhaps?

    1. Vimes

      I can't speak for others, but having some forms of entertainment in hospital - which wifi would also contribute to - is invaluable as a patient (kidney transplant in my case). For that matter it also means people stuck in hospital can talk to others without being charged exorbitant fees.

      The help that gives on a more mental & emotional level when it comes to stress is difficult to measure but trust me: it's there.

      Just because it can't be easily quantified doesn't necessarily mean it's without value.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        That's what the new 13.3" laptop, 500gb HDD and 4G dongle was for but then I spent most of my time watched epic rap battles of history, cracked and how it should have ended on my phone.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "I can't speak for others, but having some forms of entertainment in hospital ..."

        A book or an MP3 device of some kind fits the bill and was more than enough before the advent of the "I get withdrawal symptoms if I'm away from Facebook for more than 5 minutes" generation.

        1. Vimes

          A book or an MP3 device of some kind fits the bill

          And that would handle skype/whatsapp/<insert messaging app of choice here> how exactly? The telephones they provide are ludicrously expensive.

          1. Vic

            The telephones they provide are ludicrously expensive.

            That is, however, a problem of their own making. The NHS buys enough telephony that it would be cheap and simple to have some metered phones available to patients at cost/a small profit.

            But they don't; they get in the rip-off merchants. And now the country is going to spend £1B largely to counter that decison...

            Vic.

            1. Vimes

              But they don't; they get in the rip-off merchants. And now the country is going to spend £1B largely to counter that decison...

              Which is also a valid point to some degree, but even with cheap telephony I could still think of at least two good reasons to have wifi (checking my own results & entertainment both come to mind). Then there's also video calling which would not normally be covered either by any 'normal' phone service. For that matter general web access gives people ways of communicating with the outside world not possible over the phone. This thread here would be a good example of that.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Never heard of a mobile phone? They're all the rage these days...

            1. Vimes

              Never heard of a mobile phone?

              I just hope you're lucky enough to get a good reception if you're ever unlucky enough to be stuck in hospital. I certainly don't, at least in the part of the hospital where I spend most of my time.

        2. G28
          Thumb Down

          Farcical

          Yes, how dare people who are ill and stuck in hospital request anything like a choice in entertainment or methods for staying in touch with friends and relatives.

  3. Lyndon Hills 1

    Self-monitoring for patients

    Why stop there? Provide instructions for patients to perform their operations while you're at it.

    1. alain williams Silver badge

      Re: Self-monitoring for patients

      Provide instructions for patients to perform their operations while you're at it.

      Brilliant: then any complaints about delay can be blamed on the patents.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: Self-monitoring for patients

        "Brilliant: then any complaints about delay can be blamed on the patents."

        Oh FFS!!! Isn't trademarking smells and noises not enough? Now we're going to have patented operations too? Licensing fees will go through the roof!

        1. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

          Re: patented operations too?

          Patents have already been granted for some medical procedures.

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Self-monitoring for patients

      Provide instructions for patients to perform their operations while you're at it.

      Nah! just watch the video of your own operation...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Self-monitoring for patients

      Why indeed?

      Well my wife has a crippling rare disease that will, in all certainty shorten her life, but her medication and treatment has been improved since she was able to contact specialists from all over the globe who are familiar with her condition.

      The local NHS have no clue, nor have the consultants in the hospital two hours drive away. And the consultant in the specialist hospital in the next country (England) knows a little but has learned more from my wife via her interweb studies than he knew himself.

      Alas we can't go there any more due to cuts in the budgets because the management twats in the local NHS perhaps need more or bigger BMWs or something so we have to go to our local hospital to see a clueless consultant. And it then when we need all the information we can get so that we can train the consultants (yes, he on over £100k a year and knows sod-all), the local GP and then the local pharmacy to get the right drugs in the right quantities. Yes, we have to deal with the GPs too because they are the ones who sign the chits for the pharmacy to dish out and when they see the script from the consultant they get all nervous because of the type of drug and quantity needed and so they need to be trained by us too. And so it goes on to the pharmacy too.

      So yes, self-monitoring and self-diagnosis is required in this day and age when the funds for the NHS seem to go more towards useless management, paperwork (but not the patients' paperwork) and golf club fees.

      AC for obvious reasons.

  4. teebie

    £1bn

    That's enough money to pay 15 months of bursaries to student nurses to monitor patients, ignoring the amount of money you save by avoiding the perils of self-diagnosis

  5. Alister

    Such a move would allow patients staying in hospital to self-monitor their conditions using apps and reduce admin time for doctors and nurses

    A difficult decision: spend 1bn on wages to employ doctors and nurses to provide proper care, or spend it on allowing patients to try and care for themselves instead.

    Hmmmm.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "spend 1bn on wages to employ doctors and nurses to provide proper care, or spend it on allowing patients to try and care for themselves instead."

      Well, obviously a billion spent on WiFi will last forever and not need any maintenance budget whereas actual real staff are an ongoing cost. That's just simple Government economics. See how easy it is?

    2. Naselus

      "A difficult decision: spend 1bn on wages to employ doctors and nurses to provide proper care, or spend it on allowing patients to try and care for themselves instead."

      Clearly, they've recognized that letting people try to treat themselves reduces patient numbers much, much faster than letting doctors do it.

  6. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Stop

    Silliest thing I've read in a long time

    Cash is being made available from a £1bn to improve patchy Wi-Fi services in hospitals, he said.

    It claimed turning on free Wi-Fi access across the NHS estate could significantly increase take up of online health tools.

    Such a move would allow patients staying in hospital to self-monitor their conditions using apps and reduce admin time for doctors and nurses, claimed the report.

    When you're in the hospital it's the NHS staff who are supposed to look after you, not Dr. Google.

    There's someone making money rolling out public wifi.

    Good job we're in this austerity drive together or it might be 2 billion.

    1. Vimes

      Re: Silliest thing I've read in a long time

      When you're in the hospital it's the NHS staff who are supposed to look after you, not Dr. Google.

      'Online health tools' probably includes tools they run themselves. I've already joined one such scheme to track my own blood test results, and given that doctors are not always available being able to check this sort of thing myself can sometimes be reassuring.

      1. Geoffrey W

        Re: Silliest thing I've read in a long time

        Online health tools you can use at home is great, but if you're already in the hospital awaiting blood test results then I see little worth in knowing the results before your doctors do. There's little you can do about it except worry - they already got their hands on you. I suppose it would allow you to see the actual results and double check what you are being told, but, still, doesn't seem a priority to me. Great to get WiFi in hospital but deal with it when all other priorities are dealt with first maybe

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