Core inefficiencies: The hidden impact of a disconnected hospital
Disconnected care: The impact of poor mobile connectivity in NHS hospitals
A three-part series 3/3
Hospitals can be some of the most challenging environments to deliver assured 4G and 5G connectivity to. Thick walls, miles of ducting and complex layouts, combined with materials to keep people safe (such as lead shielding in x-ray suites), block outdoor mobile signal from coming indoors. But the right mobile hospital connectivity delivered with a dedicated multi-operator in-building system helps improve the experience of everyone in the building, whether that’s the clinicians, other members of the workforce, patients, or visitors.
By Simon Frumkin, CEO at Freshwave
The third and final part of our hospital connectivity series looks at the broader operational and financial impact of poor connectivity, from lack of business continuity to underutilised digital systems and infrastructure. Read our first blog on how connectivity helps frontline staff as well as our second blog about how seamless mobile signal enhances the patient experience.
With 30 million square feet of indoor health settings in the government’s property portfolio, that’s a huge footprint of property dedicated to caring for the nation’s health. And it’s essential to ensure that NHS trusts and hospitals have the right technologies in place to drive efficiencies, extract maximum value from the investment in digital tools, and allow health professionals to spend more of their time delivering care to patients, rather than on administrative tasks.
The cost of poor connectivity in hospitals
We surveyed 100 C-suite leaders and IT Directors from NHS and healthcare organisations across the UK as part of our wider Mobile Connectivity ROI Index. We discovered that they believe that almost all the value lost through poor indoor connectivity – £3.8bn – could be recouped with better indoor mobile connectivity. And 62% of respondents from the healthcare sector said better indoor mobile connectivity could boost workplace productivity, making it the biggest opportunity for improvement. For trusts looking to make the most of every pound, there’s a clear business case for bringing signal from all the operators (EE, Three, Vodafone and Virgin Media O2) indoors.
A connected hospital is an efficient hospital
The 10 Year Health Plan for England commits to a full digital transformation. It says: “New technology will liberate staff from timewasting admin and make booking appointments and managing your care as easy as online banking or shopping.” But that will only happen if the right digital infrastructure is in place to support these digital applications and ambitions.
The government set a deadline of March 2026 for NHS trusts to have invested in electronic patient records (EPRs). Most trusts have either achieved this already or are well on the way to meeting this deadline. But to unlock the full value of using EPRs, allowing health providers seamless access whether while bedside or in a back office, the right hospital connectivity also needs to be in place. EPRs are never going to deliver on the full value of the investment in the application if the connectivity that powers them drops all the time, necessitating repeated log ins. Or if clinicians must navigate around the ward looking for a spot where the connectivity allows them to download or upload records.
This is just one example of how dedicated 4G or 5G multi-operator indoor mobile connectivity delivers value. It can unlock the full power of digital tools a trust has already purchased. It also provides a platform for use case stacking. The same network can enable clinicians to update electronic patient records on the move, allow patients to navigate the hospital via a digital wayfinding app, and keep contactless payments in cafés and vending machines running smoothly. By supporting all these use cases on the same single digital infrastructure, the hospital gets maximum value from its investment, rather than funding separate systems for each function.
That’s not to say indoor mobile needs to replace Wi-Fi – rather, it complements it. By relieving congestion on the Wi-Fi network, a dedicated indoor mobile system helps Wi-Fi perform better, while also providing critical resiliency in case Wi-Fi fails, ensuring business continuity and uninterrupted patient care.
Care fit for the future
Seamless indoor mobile connectivity not only provides value back to NHS trusts today, but it also sets them up to take advantage of new technologies in the future. These technologies, including AI-driven diagnostics, real-time data sharing, and remote monitoring, rely on seamless and reliable connectivity to function properly. The right hospital connectivity supports a multitude of applications that enhance clinical decision-making, streamline workflows, and improve patient outcomes.
According to our research, healthcare respondents identified the most promising future use cases that dedicated indoor connectivity could unlock as remote patient monitoring and management (65%) and AI or generative AI for diagnostics (60%). But to embrace these emerging technologies, the right digital infrastructure needs to be put in place.
Unlock full digital productivity in hospitals
The key to unlocking the productivity puzzle in the NHS and healthcare settings is dedicated indoor mobile connectivity. Healthcare provision in the UK is at an inflection point. Changing demographics, expanding clinical treatment options, and the requirement to maximise the ROI of every penny spent mean driving efficiencies and new ways of working is essential.
The right 4G or 5G indoor mobile connectivity will not only provide year one value from business continuity and enhancing the staff and patient experience but will also allow NHS trusts to innovate and explore future care delivery options for years to come.
You can download our Mobile Connectivity ROI Index 2025 NHS and Healthcare here.
Find out more about how Freshwave work with patients and clinicians.