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iPhone project helps to keep patients and their loved ones connected
Nottingham University Hospitals is helping patients to connect with their loved ones by providing iPhones to hospital wards.
The Digital Services team at the hospital has provided 200 re-purposed IPhones, along with a guide of how to use them, so patients can virtually speak to their family and friends for free.
Visiting restrictions at the hospital have been in place since March in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, meaning many patients are unable to be visited by their loved ones.
Cat Smith, Incident Manager in the Digital Services Team at NUH, said: “We knew that our teams couldn’t do much to directly help patients during the Coronavirus but we thought that by providing these phones to the wards, it would make it easier for patients and their family and friends to virtually connect, chat and see each other during this difficult time.
"This was something we were passionate about so we called upon suppliers to assist us. WiFi Spark have provided free Wi-Fi access and EE have provided free line rental. This has enabled us to provide both voice and video calling on the phones.”
“It has not been been easy to set up but even if one patient uses the phone and finds it useful, then it is all worth it.”
The phones have apps installed on to them such as WhatsApp, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger and Safari to enable families to virtually connect.
Cheryl Powell, Digital Services Business Development Manager at NUH, said: “We made a laminated guide which tells patients how to use the phone and some of the apps such as FaceTime and WhatsApp because we knew there would be patients who might not have used an iPhone before.
“We feel really passionate about this project and we’re really pleased that we can help in some way during the pandemic.”
The project has been supported by WiFi Spark, EE, Mobile Iron and Bridgeway.
The project leads Cat Smith (Incident Manager) and Stuart Hendy (Senior Mobile Devices Management Administrator) were supported by the Mobile Devices Management Team, members of the Business Development Managers Team and Harmeet Dhillon from the Application Management Team.