Case Studies - Ninewells Hospital, Dundee

At a major hospital on Tayside, a digital radio system is helping to manage
ancillary staff – and to keep them safe when working alone on this large site

Opened in 1974, Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital is one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe, and it has won an international reputation in several medical and surgical fields. But with nearly 1000 acute beds and more than 35 miles of corridors on many levels, its sheer scale can present problems – in locating staff, for example. For the hospital’s portering department, that problem has been solved by new DMR digital two-way radios from Hytera which recently replaced an outdated analogue radio system. “What we asked for was a two-way radio system whereby the supervisor porters could contact the staff round about the hospital, to pass work to them, as opposed to them having to return to the base and having to go out again”, says Ronnie Stewart, assistant portering manager.

“We have a large site”, he continues, “so there’s quite a lot of walking for the staff to do, as you can imagine. We cover more or less everything within the hospital. Our staff could be in the laboratory delivering specimens and they could get a radio call to go get a patient – and once they’ve done that, the supervisor will contact them and say, ‘Once you’ve finished this...’.

“It’s a big benefit to the hospital and the patients – the faster moving of patients from the wards to the departments and vice versa, and patients being discharged. It’s reducing the time that the patients are waiting to get their treatment.”

Digital upgrade
Donnie McLeod, of radio systems supplier Scottish Communications, comments: “The Hytera system that has recently been installed is basically an upgrade of the old analogue system that they’ve had in place for a number of years. Obviously, with the advantages of the digital system it was more attractive for them to go down that route.”

About 20 handportable radios are in use within the portering department, plus a desktop unit installed in the porters’ lodge, from which individual tasks are assigned. These communicate via a repeater installed on Level 11 of the main building. “The site itself is quite a difficult challenge because it’s so big and obviously with the limited ERP [power level] within a hospital”, Mr McLeod adds. “The repeater itself is within a lift plant room and the antenna is on the main cooling tower. It’s a good location.”

Unlike the old analogue radio system, the digital radios support person-to-person calling as well as group calls. In this way, managers can contact the porters from a base radio in their office.

“If we want any staff, we can contact them through that as well”, Ronnie Stewart explains. “We can call them individually and talk on a one-to-one basis, or we can listen in to conversations as they are going along.”

Double capacity
One particular advantage of the DMR technology is that its two time-slots have effectively doubled the capacity of the system, and it has become practicable for workers in several other departments to benefit from radios too. “On night shift we have security attendants who are charged with the responsibility of working the hospital and dealing with any potential issues within the A&E department, and things like that”, Mr Stewart continues.

“The other department that uses them is the medical records department in the hospital. They purchased two of the digital radios as well for their lone working policy. Like ourselves, they’ve got staff who work on night shift. There’s two of them, I believe, and they cover the whole of the hospital. And if there’s any issues, they contact one another as well – they could be anywhere within the hospital.”

Portering staff, who account for most of the radio traffic, have been assigned Channel 1, while security attendants and others are on Channel 2.

Lone working
Ronnie Stewart emphasizes the value of the radios for lone worker protection. “We have a responsibility to these members of staff as well, and they carry these radios”, he says. “We also have another unit not far from Ninewells Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital, and we’ve recently installed the radio system over there too. There’s a lone working policy over there after a certain time in the evening, and that’s linked up to the supervisor’s office over at Ninewells Hospital. If there’s any issues, they can contact them by the radio in a split second.”

Donnie McLeod comments that the Hytera handportables have performed well and that their reliability has been good, despite the rough handling that is inevitable in a portering department. “They do get treated pretty rough, but they’ve stood up to it pretty well so far”, he says. “I’ve been quite impressed.”

Ronnie Stewart has been very satisfied with the radios too. “Donnie gave us several options”, he says. “But we felt that this particular radio was sufficient for our needs, and there are definitely no problems with it. It’s a big advantage.”