Female patient lying on her side in a hospital bed checking her mobile phone.

NSW Health Patient and Guest Wi-Fi

NSW Health Patient and Guest Wi-Fi provides a secure and consistent service to our hospitals and facilities across the state. It includes both a free and premium paid service to connect family and friends as well as provide entertainment to improve your hospital experience.

Male patient sitting up in a hospital bed video calling using a tablet device.

The Challenge

Historically, local health districts used a variety of different services or simply did not provide Wi-Fi at all. Internet access wasn’t always available or reliable and different firewall policies meant that the experience was highly varied across the state.

Those organisations that did run a service found implementing and managing guest Wi-Fi to be extremely complex and expressed a strong desire to use a service provider with expertise in this area.

Having access to statewide service offerings that are consistent across all facilities, simple to use, fit for purpose and secure is a critical requirement to meet both patient and business expectations.

I’ve enjoyed it as an inpatient in other hospitals. It’s wonderful that it’s also available as an outpatient, especially if you are having a lengthy procedure. I congratulate Kyogle Multi-Purpose Service for its pioneering role in providing this service for patients.
Mathias Rogala-Koczorowski, Patient, 2022
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Male patient lying down in a hospital bed video calling using a tablet device.

The Plan

Starting in 2016, the Patient and Guest Wi-Fi roll out was completed in 2021 using eHealth NSW’s Health Wide Area Network (HWAN).

This followed a pilot with Sydney Children’s Hospital Network and Port Macquarie Base Hospital that determined the Wi-Fi solution was viable.

The team considered multiple use cases and built the system to cater for:

  • long stay and frequently returning patients providing free access to the premium service via vouchers
  • access to online classes for in-hospital school children in wards
  • privacy internet filters that still gave access for video calls, music and movie streaming plus social media

eHealth NSW worked closely with our IT delivery partners to deliver the Wi-Fi system as both a free and paid service. The paid option is better for activities requiring faster download speeds such as gaming or Netflix.

Giving access to Wi-Fi has enhanced the care we can provide in our hospitals and made such a difference to patients and visitors.
Jill Ludford, User, 2022
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Female nurse with a girl patient looking at a tablet.

The Outcome

At the end of December 2022, a total of 181 NSW Health sites were using the Statewide Patient and Guest Wi-Fi Service.

Smiling female patient lying hospital bed video calling using a tablet device.

The Benefits

With high-speed performance and built-in resilience, Patient and Guest Wi-Fi securely keeps patients and guests connected and amused during times of often great stress.

The service:

  • Connects patients to their families, education, business, and entertainment
  • Improves patient social wellbeing
  • Helps children attend hospital schools
  • Enables constant connection to the Wi-Fi network across NSW Health facilities.

Key Stats
520,000+
NSW Health Patient and Guest Wi-Fi users
181
NSW Health sites were using the Statewide Patient and Guest Wi-Fi Service*

Data correct as of July 2024
*Data correct as of December 2022

Related solutions

Health Wide Area Network (HWAN)

The Health Wide Area Network (HWAN) connects health facilities with NSW data centres, in order to share communicati…