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NHS Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi for staff and patients in NHS care settings across England.

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Learn how to set up NHS Wi-Fi

Technical guidance and policies to help NHS organisations set up and provide NHS Wi-Fi across health settings.

NHS Wi-Fi provides a secure, stable, and reliable Wi-Fi capability, consistent across thousands of NHS care settings across England.

Having a reliable, consistent and secure connection to the internet through NHS Wi-Fi has a range of benefits for patients and staff. It helps everyone use the increasing range of digital services available, making care more efficient and helping patients take control of their own health and care.

Over 8,000 centres of patient care across England have been Wi-Fi enabled through the NHS Wi-Fi programme, providing over 63 million visiting patients and citizens with access to free NHS Wi-Fi.

Although the national programme has now been completed, we continue to provide:

  • technical guidance and policies for NHS organisations who wish to set up Wi-Fi within their care settings
  • posters and marketing materials
  • a 'post authentication' web page, hosted on NHS.UK, as explained in the above guidance

We do not provide funding to NHS organisations to set up or run Wi-Fi in their care settings. How individual trusts and GP practices take advantage of the NHS Wi-Fi platform to deliver healthcare benefits to patients is totally dependent on local innovation.

Patient benefits

Patients are using NHS Wi-Fi to:

  • access personal health records
  • use health apps
  • interact with patient support networks
  • manage appointments and medication requests
  • manage conditions online, and research their conditions
  • use health-based information services
  • keep in touch with friends and family while receiving care, especially when the 3G/4G mobile signal is weak or non-existent

Clinician and NHS staff benefits

Health and care workers are using NHS Wi-Fi to:

  • access information on the move, including increased access to summary care records
  • direct patients to online support
  • connect their mobile devices to deliver care
  • offer online consultations

NHS Wi-Fi posters and marketing materials

Download NHS Wi-Fi posters and marketing materials to make users aware of the service in your local care setting.

Case studies of benefits of free NHS Wi-Fi

Read real-life examples of how NHS Wi-Fi is helping health and care settings.

The programme completed in December 2019.

You can still access our guidance and technical specifications - see How to set up NHS Wi-Fi.

Technical queries

If you are having issues with performance of or access to NHS Wi-Fi solution in your area, please contact your organisations IT help desk directly. 

Further information

Last edited: 31 January 2024 3:54 pm