RMD has won a five-year maintenance contract for power and cooling services at Freeman Hospital’s data centre in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Modern medicine’s reliance on IT networks means the data centre has become the life support system of all hospitals. It is imperative that power is kept running to the data centre constantly or lives would be put at risk.
Freeman Hospital’s data centre was originally designed and installed by RMD in 2008 and provides critical services to the hospital. It supports clinical services including a new electronic patient record system, providing a road map of a person’s journey through the hospital.
This roadmap is essential for the treatment and care of the patient while they are in the hospital and beyond. Additionally the hospital’s radiotherapy database runs on the data centre, delivering dosage planning for individual patients’ cancer treatments.
Freeman Hospital’s IT Manager, Dave Brunt explains: “Normally we would ask a number of contractors to provide maintenance but because of the critical nature of the clinical systems the data centre supports, it is vital we work with just one company that we can trust implicitly.
“We have complete faith in the systems RMD has put in place and already these systems have been tested in real life incidents and there has been no impact to the smooth delivery of hospital services.”
RMD will maintain the UPS, air conditioning, chillers, fire suppression system and ventilation. This will involve annual, quarterly and monthly inspections of the equipment, cabling and the structural integrity of the room.
RMD provide 24 hour emergency cover, 365 days a year and guarantee to have a rapid response team on site within four hours.
John Smykala, RMD’s MD comments: “All hospitals are completely reliant on power to keep their IT and clinical systems going. We understand that downtime is just not an option for the NHS and we do whatever it takes to ensure that power does not fail. We are very aware of the importance of our work and we take our responsibility extremely seriously. We are incredibly proud to be entrusted by Freeman Hospital to carry out this essential work.”
Freeman Hospital has an international reputation for its pioneering medical care and treatment.. The UK’s first successful child heart transplant was performed at Freeman as well as Europe’s first single and first double lung transplant.
As part of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Freeman Hospital delivers a wide range of advanced, patient-focused healthcare to patients from Newcastle, the North East Ireland and beyond.
Services at the Freeman Hospital range from General Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery and digital hearing aids, through to the latest developments in restoring hearing or treating complex liver, pancreatic and kidney diseases.
RMD is a leading force in the provision of innovative, integrated power and cooling solutions for data centres in the UK and Europe. The company has a powerful reputation in the industry and is one of only a handful of UK companies that can design, supply, install and maintain power and cooling.
Working in the public and private sector, for global brands as well as the SME, RMD’s clients include the NHS, Cairn Energy, Amazon and National Air Traffic Services.
ENDS
