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Queen Elizabeth Hospital treats patients to free WiFi

By Richard Ellor
26 March 2017
3 min read
Queen Elizabeth Hospital treats patients to free WiFi
Healthcare WiFi & digital patient experienceNHS trust benchmark model

Hospital patient WiFi & demographic capacity advisor

Calculate projected patient logins, demographic engagement (dispelling the myth that older patients do not use WiFi), survey response rates, and zero-hardware-overlay deployment feasibility for your healthcare facility.

Select healthcare facility profile
500 beds
50 beds750 beds1,500 beds
28,000 visitors/mo
2,00060,000120,000
Existing wireless hardware architecture

100% native overlay: Direct RADIUS / CoA integration on Cisco Catalyst 9800 & legacy WLCs with zero hardware replacement.

Primary digital health goal

Estimated healthcare impact & engagement projections

Monthly active patient connections
6,160
~22% footfall adoption rate
Patients aged 45 & over (demographic)
2,587
42% of total users (1,216 aged 65+)
Annual patient CRM database reach
62,832
Opt-in healthcare contacts
New hardware capital outlay
£0 / $0
100% overlay on Cisco Catalyst / WLC
✓42% Adoption among patients 45+

Simple, barrier-free splash page logins help older patients get online and reduce bedside isolation without requiring app installations.

ISO 27001 Certified
Enterprise Security
NHS WiFi Compliant
Caldicott & GDPR
< 2-Week Deployment
Zero Hospital Downtime
Gartner Recognized
Indoor Location Services

Deliver secure, accessible patient WiFi across your health system

Download the full NHS trust case study or speak with our healthcare wireless solutions team to deploy Purple on your existing Cisco Meraki, HPE Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Ubiquiti UniFi, Cambium, Extreme or Fortinet hardware.

Explore guest WiFi guide →
Useful? Link to this tool
Healthcare Infrastructure AdvisorBandwidth, Micro-segmentation & RTLS ROI

Hospital WiFi capacity and clinical architecture advisor

Model hospital WiFi capacity, patient and visitor bandwidth allocations, clinical EMR prioritisation, medical IoT VLAN isolation, and RTLS asset tracking ROI for healthcare facilities.

Multi-ward acute hospital managing steady inpatient occupancy, intensive visitor footfall, mobile workstations on wheels, and mobile clinical equipment locating.

450 beds
20 beds1,200 beds
88% (396 occupied)
50%100%
1,200 / day
100 / day4,000 / day
320 clinicians
20 staff1,000 staff
3.5 / bed (1,386 total)
1.0 / bed7.0 / bed
850 tags
50 tags3,000 tags
Concurrent Endpoints
3,965
Patients, staff, IoT & RTLS tags
Required WAN Uplink
5,150 Mbps
With 30% clinical burst headroom
Access Points Required
~75 APs
Calculated for hospital ward attenuation
Patient Subnet Scope
/21 (2,046 usable host IPs)
Prevents DHCP address exhaustion
Recommended Architecture Framework
Tier 2: Acute Hospital Distributed Campus

This profile requires dual-controller wireless redundancy, high-availability core routing with stateful session synchronisation, 802.1Q sub-interface segmentation, and Cloud RADIUS authentication for Zero Trust clinical access.

Guest WiFi Guide
Useful? Link to this tool

Purple, the intelligent spaces company, has installed its WiFi and analytics solution at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and it has proved to be a big hit with patients both young and old.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Trust is an acute hospital serving the communities of West Norfolk, South Lincolnshire and East Cambridgeshire. Before last summer, the hospital only had WiFi access in a privately-operated coffee shop at the front of the site, which meant there was no connectivity in any of their wards or waiting rooms.

As part of its programme to improve patient experience across the Trust, they began to consider what WiFi solution would work best for its patients. They recognised that a secure, free connectivity solution was particularly essential in their Roxburgh Children's Centre, as young patients and their parents like to be able to stream videos and access interactive websites during their stay.

In just over 2 weeks, Purple's guest WiFi was live using existing Cisco equipment and accessible to patients via a dedicated splash page where they can log in via a simple form. In the first full month of WiFi access, a total of 5,847 people logged into the service and in January 2017 this figure had increased by almost 10%.

Michael West, Head of ICT at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The feedback that we have received from patients about the WiFi has been very positive, the weekly KPIs that we receive from Purple's portal prove that the offering is well used.”

To date, the hospital's free guest WiFi has been very popular, with almost 23,000 visitors accessing the solution since it was installed. Purple's analytics also demonstrated that 42% of people accessing the WiFi are aged 45 and over, with almost 20% of this group aged 65+.

Michael adds: “The user demographics have proved particularly interesting. Our main demographic at the hospital is elderly patients and in initial discussions about WiFi many people believed that this age category wouldn't use the service. However, this has not been the case as many of our older patients use it. This information is useful to justify the usage amongst our largest demographic.”

The marketing team at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital eventually plan to roll out communications to the large database of emails that have been collected by Purple's WiFi and analytics solution. The content will range from a simple reminder for visitors to wash their hands and control infection whilst on site, to information about winter flu vaccinations for elderly patients post-visit.

Commenting on the collaboration with the hospital, Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple said: “We're proud to be working with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn and it's great to see that the guest WiFi has received a good reception from patients. The Trust now has a wealth of CRM data available to them, which means the marketing communications should reach a wide and relevant audience.”

Read the full ROI case study to find out how the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn connected patients and obtained over 23,000 CRM records.

Frequently asked questions

How did The Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust deploy Purple patient WiFi without replacing hardware?

The Trust integrated Purple's cloud-based guest WiFi platform directly on top of their existing Cisco wireless infrastructure. Deployment went live in just over two weeks across wards, waiting areas, and the Roxburgh Children's Centre without requiring physical cabling overhauls or expensive hardware upgrades.

What patient demographic trends did Purple analytics uncover at Queen Elizabeth Hospital?

Purple analytics revealed that 42% of active hospital WiFi users were aged 45 and over, with almost 20% of that group aged 65 and above. This verified that older demographics actively utilize patient WiFi when provided with a simple, barrier-free login experience, overcoming common digital inclusion assumptions.

How does NHS patient WiFi support healthcare communications and public health campaigns?

Hospital communications and clinical teams utilize Purple's landing pages and CRM workflows to distribute targeted health alerts, handwashing reminders, seasonal flu vaccination guidance, and Friends and Family Test (FFT) patient satisfaction surveys directly to connected visitors.

How does Purple ensure NHS patient data privacy and UK GDPR compliance?

Purple is ISO 27001 certified and fully compliant with UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and NHS Digital information governance standards. Patient data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with strict consent management and granular opt-in controls for healthcare communications.

Can hospital patient WiFi handle high-bandwidth applications like paediatric video streaming?

Yes. Purple provides enterprise bandwidth rate limiting, content filtering, and tiering across SSIDs. This ensures critical hospital clinical applications and EHR systems maintain prioritized airtime while paediatric patients and waiting visitors enjoy fast, reliable streaming and browsing.

How quickly can an NHS Trust or healthcare facility deploy Purple?

Because Purple is a hardware-agnostic cloud platform compatible with Cisco Catalyst, Meraki, Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, and Extreme Networks, typical healthcare deployments launch in under two weeks with zero downtime for clinical operations.

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