A healthcare trust in North Yorkshire has become one of the first to deliver the government requirements for so-called e-hospitals, shunning Windows NT in favour of Novell kit.

The Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospitals NHS Trust is the only Trust to address the direct referral of patients from a technology route, leaving its counterparts well behind.

It is piloting a live system allowing GPs to make direct bookings online for routine surgery.

Peter Kidd, head of IT for the Trust, said the IT department for hospitals is no longer seen as an operational component and is involved in every aspect of the business.

"The Trust's plan is to focus on developing a robust infrastructure that has the capability to support heterogeneous systems, from proprietary applications on Unix platforms to Java-based solutions on the internet," he said.

Kidd points to the lack of calls to the helpdesk as evidence that the network is a success. He claims the helpdesk can go the whole afternoon without receiving a call.

"Choosing technology that supports open systems and are internet-aware has given us so much more flexibility," he said.

"You need to use the right components - they need to be easy to integrate together to deliver services that can be developed and improved as new technology comes on the market. In my view, an NT infrastructure just doesn't have the coherence to meet our objectives."

The Trust will upgrade to the new version of GroupWise Bulletproof when it is released next year. Kidd has put his trust in Novell despite the company's poor financial showing and doubts about its future.

"Without the GroupWise solution, we would have had to install email servers in every practice at a cost of £10,000 per practice for the Health Authority," he said.

"Although our Patient Information System runs on a proprietary database on a Unix server, Novell's cross-platform, standards-compliant approach means that we can create integrated solutions incorporating these legacy systems."

First published in Network News