MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – NHS Oldham’s new Oldham Integrated Care Centre will be implementing a new system to improve patient care through greater access to medical applications and information.

NHS Oldham provides healthcare services for 227,000 people. Officials said these services are delivered across a variety of settings by a wide range of clinicians including doctors, consultants, GPs, nurses, pharmacists and opticians. They are also responsible for providing community services through Oldham Community Health Services.

“The Oldham Integrated Care Centre will bring together a range of frontline medical services in a purpose-built facility and feature the latest technologies to improve productivity and patient care," said Paul Lyons, associate director of finance and head of information management and technology at NHS Oldham. “By making better use of information computer technology, we can maximize the time clinicians spend with patients, which will help improve patient outcomes and reduce waste making the services operate more effectively.”

The network supporting the new center is being designed and deployed by NHS Oldham’s prime ICT partner, Computacenter. Computacenter has configured and installed 350 new desktops and implemented the Power and Patch Management Pack, a combination of 1E's NightWatchman PC power management solution and WakeUp Wake-on-LAN availability management solution WakeUp.

Computacenter officials said these systems will enforce the shutdown of desktop computers and enhance the management and distribution of operating system patches. As a result, they said, NHS Oldham will be able to reduce energy costs by £41,000 in the first year and decrease its carbon footprint.

NHS Oldham will be deploying the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager to manage its ICT estate,  officials said. The solution is expected to enable Computacenter to maintain a standard user operating system and deliver desktop software in a more cost-effective manner.

“Cutting costs and spending more time with patients are ongoing challenges for primary care trusts, and it is important that these already stretched NHS services are given the right level of support and guidance on how IT can be used to meet these needs," said Chris Price, public sector director at Computacenter.