IT Essentials: Healthcare

5th June 2025

Without a healthy IT system, medical professionals can’t do their jobs: is your healthcare provider’s IT due for a check-up?

Like education, healthcare is another industry that can struggle to invest properly in IT. The NHS is such an enormous, interconnected behemoth, with limited budgets, resulting in IT that is often neglected. True, there are private health companies that can afford the latest in technology, but most healthcare in the UK is related to the NHS in some regard.

Take a look at the key elements of IT in healthcare: are the systems your local GP or hospital use robust enough?

Infrastructure: reliable connectivity needs to be in place to give staff access to patient records and services. Wi-Fi networks should be segmented for staff and patients, with sensitive data being hosted on NHS approved cloud providers only.

Clinical Systems: this includes Electronic Health Records (EHR) for accessing patient records, Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) for accessing medical imaging and ePrescribing Systems for accessing information on medication.

Communication: the NHS is massive, with hospitals, clinics, surgeries and more all needing to be able to speak to each other. It is important that information sent between sites as well as internally is efficient, accurate and secure.

IT Support: if healthcare related technology fails, it can be devastating. Important procedures may need to be delayed or rescheduled, so healthcare staff need a provider who can get systems back online with as little downtime as possible.

Cyber Security: any healthcare provider must meet various standards to ensure patient data is kept secure. Encryption, endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication – these are all vital to keeping key data safe and meeting compliance requirements.

You may not think IT is the most important element of a hospital or local GP, but if a patient does or doesn’t receive an email it could be the difference in them getting to the appointment that may save their life, or not – it is worth investing in.

If you are in the healthcare industry and would like advice related to your IT systems, please contact Interfuture Systems HERE.