Sheffield Patients to Sleep Easier, With Help from Kingston Communications

Sheffield's doctors now have single number access thanks to a system put in by Kingston Communications.

(PRWEB) February 24, 2005 -- Sheffields doctors can look forward to a better quality of life, thanks to out of hours services becoming accessible through a phone single call, made possible by Kingston Communications. Sheffields residents should sleep easier as well: if they need medical attention out of hours, all they have to do is dial their surgery and their calls will automatically be transferred to the right place,

A three year contract awarded to Kingston Communications means that 0845 numbering services and IVR (interactive voice response) technology have been offered to 189 GP and dental practices. Calls are routed to the right place according to time of day/day of week and even day of year, and the contract makes provision for disaster recovery.

All that patients have to do now is to call their surgery if they need out of hours support," said Sue Cooper, Director of Unscheduled Care. They probably wont even notice that the system is there as we are looking to provide a seamless service out of hours. Each of the GP practices will have had the service tailored to allow them to divert out of hours phone calls to the relevant out of hours service provider, be it NHS Direct, Prime Care or GP Collaborative. Using a menu, which is tailored for each surgery, callers should get through to the right person to help, first time."

The technology was implemented on an incremental basis to ensure it reached the Governments December 2004 deadline for single access. This was achieved largely through strong collaboration between the four Sheffield NHS Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), Kingston Communications and telecoms consultancy Trust Consulting. All have worked closely to support surgeries and ensure appropriate services.

The system is being offered at no additional cost to GPs or end users," said Alistair Burnside, Trust Consulting. We were confident that we could trust Kingston to deliver their side of the system we promised, and they have. The system isnt being imposed -- its there as an option for healthcare providers if they want it. Around 90% of surgeries have opted to use it."

Tony Cox, Director, Public Sector, Kingston Communications, said: The nice thing about the system is that the initial investment in the underlying technology, an intelligent network, provides the health authority with a solid springboard for other telephony based services in future."

Although the Government initiative helped focus minds on deadlines, the programme is part of a larger drive to improve the efficiency and quality of health services across the region," said Bob Chaytor, Account Manager, Kingston Communications.

The independent review of out-of-hours services was published by the Department of Health in October 2002: 'Raising Standards for Patients New Partnerships in Out-Of-Hours Care.

About Trust Consulting
Trust Consulting is an independent telecoms consultancy providing excellence in a range of services including: strategy development and documentation; network planning, design, development, and management; project management; invitations to Tender (ITT's), tender response and tender evaluation; specifications; call management; and facilities managed service.

About the Kingston Group
Kingston Communications is a leading provider of communications solutions, providing a wide range of voice, data, internet and contact centre services to businesses and public sector organisations throughout the UK.

Kingston is a converged communications company with expertise and experience in both telecommunications and enterprise networking, supported by its own 2200km broadband network. As such, it is ideally positioned to meet the infrastructure, equipment and connectivity requirements of modern organisations, for whom communications is a strategic consideration.

Kingstons national capabilities have been built on its strong foundations within East Yorkshire, where the company has been providing leading edge services to residential and business customers for over 100 years and where it has been a pioneer in the use of ADSL technology.

In December 2004 Kingston acquired 100% of the shares of Omnetica Holdings Ltd, specialists in the provision of converged IP networks.

The Kingston Group also includes Eclipse Internet, an established and growing broadband ISP that delivers internet connectivity and services to businesses and consumers throughout the UK.

For further information, please contact:
Claire Thompson
Zed PR
T: 0118 944 0394
E: claire@zedpr.co.uk

Kay Stevenson
Kingston Communications
T: 01482 60 2400
E: Kay.Stevenson@kcom.com

Alistair Burnside
Trust Consulting
T: 0114 27 11075
E: alistairb@trustcon.co.uk

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