§ Sir Wyn RobertsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what proposals he has for connecting the NHS to the Internet. [38744]
§ Mr. SackvilleFramework contracts have been awarded to British Telecom and Mercury for wide area network services to establish a national health service-wide electronic communications infrastructure. This will provide an information super-highway dedicated to the NHS which will, in turn, be able to be connected to the global Internet through secure, centrally managed, gateways. These gateways will allow controlled access from the NHS-wide network but will prevent unauthorised intrusion from the Internet. Demonstration testing of the secure gateway between the NHS-wide networking services and the global Internet is under-way.