Connected care:
The four pillars of a modern NHS network
Build a network for connected care, system-wide collaboration and long-term digital maturity.
What's holding Trusts back?
Innovation is everywhere in healthcare. But not every Trust has the same foundation to build on. Whilst new technologies continue to reshape diagnostics, treatment and outpatient care, much of the underlying infrastructure remains under strain.
Four critical barriers in particular are blocking progress for NHS Trusts:
Financial constraints
Change management
Legacy systems
Lack of trust
The imperative for network change
Many NHS Trusts are investing in EPRs, virtual wards and remote monitoring, but the infrastructure beneath them hasn’t quite kept pace.
When networks underperform, so does everything built on top of them. And the longer these issues go unaddressed, the more they slow down care, stretch resources, and increase risk.
What happens when infrastructure lags:
Modern care relies on real-time data, but many Trusts are still running on networks designed for a different era. That gap is now undermining critical services.
- Clinical staff lose time waiting for logins or records.
- Data gets siloed, breaking the continuity of care.
- IT teams firefight issues instead of driving innovation.
- Transformation projects stall, unable to scale.
The business case: unlock long-term value from your network infrastructure
- Automation and cloud-based control reduce pressure on stretched IT teams.
- Built-in security and compliance tools support GDPR and NHS DSP Toolkit alignment.
- Central visibility allows better planning, oversight and data-driven decision-making.
- Scalable, resilient architecture protects against future disruption and supports growth.
What do NHS Trusts need from their network?
Fast, reliable access to clinical tool and patient records is essential for safe, effective care. When systems are responsive and connected, clinicians can act with speed and confidence. If you’re ready to move beyond delays and disjointed data, it’s time to invest in infrastructure that’s built for modern care delivery.
The impact of COVID-19 is still being felt across the system, with long-term costs baked into the baseline, from enhanced infection control to more acute patient needs, constrained social care capacity and persistently higher staff absence rates. More recently, industrial action over the summer of 2024 is estimated to have reduced productivity by a further 0.5%, forcing the NHS to absorb shift cover costs and forgo elective activity.
A modern healthcare network needs to enable every interaction, every decision and every step in the care journey.
What "good" looks like in today's NHS
To keep pace with digital demands, a network must:
- Deliver real-time EPR access across departments and locations, without lag or interruption.
- Support remote care and mobile teams, enabling clinicians to access and update data wherever they are.
- Scale to meet IoMT growth, with capacity for thousands of devices transmitting diverse data types.
- Embed security and compliance into the fabric of the network, not bolt it on after.
Why it starts with the network
A network that’s built for modern healthcare, enables you to:
Scale EPRs
Enable mobile care
Deliver joined-up ICS services
Every second saved through fast logins and seamless access is a second clinicians can spend with patients. When systems run smoothly, interfaces stay responsive and records are always accessible, the impact is immediate. It all adds up to an infrastructure that supports the way the NHS delivers care today.
1. Visibility and analytics
See clearly. Act confidently.
Why it matters
In the NHS, a lack of visibility isn’t just an IT problem — it’s a clinical risk. When networks slow down or systems fail, the consequences can be immediate: delayed access to records, missed handovers, and longer response times.
Without real-time oversight, issues remain hidden until something breaks.
And by then, the impact has already reached the frontline.
For CIOs, COOs and digital leads, complete visibility across devices, connections and applications is the foundation for safe, efficient care.
The NHS context
- EPR slowdowns often trace back to unseen network congestion or access point failure
- Clinical mobility depends on a seamless experience as staff move between buildings, wards and sites
- IoMT sprawl makes it harder to track what’s connected, where, and with what level of priority or risk
Modern NHS estates aren’t static. They evolve daily, and so should the tools that monitor them.
How Extreme helps
Extreme delivers centralised visibility that’s built for the scale and complexity of NHS environments.
- ExtremeCloud™ IQ CoPilot uses machine learning to spot anomalies before they escalate, reducing reactive IT tickets
- Unified monitoring across switches, APs and SD-WAN provides a single, real-time view of network health
- Historical and predictive analytics support audits, change planning and capacity forecasting
It’s visibility that goes beyond uptime, giving you the insight to act early, adapt quickly and build with confidence.
Self-assessment checklist
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Do you have full visibility of all connected devices, segmented by type or role?
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Can you identify and diagnose performance issues across multiple sites in real time?
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Does your network alert you proactively to degradation, overload or abnormal activity?
2. Security and zero-trust environments
Protect data. Build trust.
Why it matters
The NHS is under growing pressure to defend against increasingly complex cyber threats — and traditional perimeter-based security isn’t enough.
With ransomware, phishing and unauthorised access attempts rising year-on-year, Trusts must adopt a security model that reflects today’s reality:
Every device, user and connection is a potential risk — and must be verified continuously.
That’s the core of zero-trust security: no assumptions, no shortcuts, no weak links.
It’s the only approach that can protect sensitive data while enabling modern, flexible care delivery.
The NHS context
- Ransomware and phishing attacks are now routine threats, targeting both central NHS systems and individual Trusts.
- Patient data is governed by GDPR and NHS Digital standards, demanding robust protection and auditability.
- Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies and growing remote access needs are expanding the attack surface — especially across hybrid and mobile workforces.
With more users, more locations, and more entry points than ever before, static defences aren’t enough.
How Extreme helps
- ExtremeControl enforces granular, policy-based access — ensuring only authorised users and devices get through.
- Role-based access and device fingerprinting restrict access by user type and endpoint, helping to isolate clinical, admin and guest traffic.
- Seamless integration with existing identity platforms and threat detection tools provides layered, adaptive defence without slowing workflows.
We help you in securing trust, continuity and compliance at every level.
Self-assessment checklist
- Have you implemented zero-trust principles across your network and remote access tools?
- Can you isolate traffic across clinical, guest and IoMT devices to limit exposure?
- Do you have automated, policy-driven controls to enforce security across all locations and endpoints?
- Does your network include the secure segmentation necessary to achieve PCI compliance?
3. Resilience and scale
Built to last. Ready to grow.
Why it matters
When a network goes down, care stops. When it can’t scale, digital innovation stalls. The NHS can’t afford either. As digital workloads increase — from real-time imaging and diagnostics to remote consultations and virtual wards — infrastructure must be able to keep pace without compromise. That means being resilient enough to avoid downtime and scalable enough to grow with demand.
Modern care doesn’t just need a bigger network.
It needs a smarter, more adaptable one.
The NHS context
- Expansion projects, including new community hubs, diagnostics centres and virtual care teams, are placing fresh strain on ageing networks.
- Legacy systems often lack the failover and redundancy needed to guarantee 24/7 access across sites.
- Latency-sensitive apps like PACS, imaging and remote diagnostics require bandwidth and performance that older infrastructure can’t deliver.
Without investment, these gaps turn into delays, disruptions and missed opportunities to modernise care.
How Extreme helps
- Fabric-based networking enables high availability, rapid failover and seamless expansion across multiple sites.
- Wi-Fi 6/6E provides dense, high-speed connectivity even in demanding clinical environments.
- Healthcare-ready switching and routing ensures resilience without adding unnecessary complexity.
This is infrastructure that survives pressure, and it performs under it.
Self-assessment checklist
- Can your network deliver high availability across all sites, including satellite and community settings?
- Are you able to scale network capacity quickly, without expensive redesigns or rip-and-replace projects?
- Are you confident your infrastructure can support modern clinical systems and high-throughput apps reliably?
4. Operational simplicity
Do more. With less
Why it matters
For NHS IT teams, complexity isn’t just inconvenient — it’s unsustainable. Across the country, digital teams are being asked to deliver more with fewer people, older systems and rising expectations.
Managing sprawling, multi-vendor networks while supporting frontline users leaves little time for strategy — or even breathing room.
Simplification isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a survival strategy.
The network should reduce friction, not create it.
The NHS context
- Burnout and capacity limits are hitting IT teams hard — especially in Trusts facing workforce shortages or high turnover.
- Multi-vendor estates mean more platforms to manage, more compatibility issues, and slower incident resolution.
- Transformation fatigue: Projects often focus on rollout, without planning for ongoing maintenance and support.
Without simplification, every new initiative risks becoming just another operational burden.
How Extreme helps
- ExtremeCloud™ IQ unifies switches, access points and SD-WAN under a single cloud-based console.
- Automation handles setup, updates, and diagnostics — freeing up time for strategic work.
- AI/ML tools flag root causes, optimise performance in real time, and reduce manual troubleshooting.
It’s not about working harder. It’s about working smarter — with infrastructure that actively supports your team.
Self-assessment checklist
- Is your network centrally managed from a single platform?
- How much manual effort is needed to deploy, fix or support devices?
- Can non-specialist staff understand and act on network data?
Delivering the network NHS Trusts deserve
Digital transformation in the NHS doesn’t fail because of vision. It fails because the infrastructure underneath can’t keep up.
Modern care is data-driven, mobile, and increasingly complex. To deliver it safely and efficiently, Trusts need a network that performs at every level, from secure logins and real-time EPR access to uninterrupted imaging, diagnostics and remote consultations.
We give NHS Trusts the tools to build something better:
- Faster logins and smoother workflows for frontline staff
- Fewer outages and better uptime across all sites
- Safer data and built-in compliance from day one
- Systems that talk to each other, across locations, platforms and care settings.
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