NHS England COVID-19 operational guidance – support for remote working

NHS England has announced that practices will receive extra support including additional laptops and remote connections to NHS networks. The key points are summarised here.

The guidance indicates that practices should be able to access extra laptops and associated equipment, additional VPN to connect to the NHS Network including for us on personal devices where NHS equipment cannot be provided, as well as remote Smartcards, as follows:

1. Remote working Additional laptops and associated equipment will be provided. Rapid assessment and approval of regional requirements for a large number of additional laptops and associated equipment will be complete over the coming days centrally so that CCGs can deliver support for remote working to practice staff that need it.

CCGs that have implemented ‘virtualised’ desktop solutions are encouraged to expand those wherever possible as a safe and expedient mechanism to support remote working.

2. VPN tokens VPN (Virtual private network) tokens are necessary to establish secure connection to NHS networks. We are working closely with clinical system suppliers and NHS Digital to ensure we can increase the supply of tokens for you. Our preference is for soft tokens, which are delivered to you electronically. 

In the absence of availability of NHS standard equipment, some practices are implementing local solutions to enable staff to work remotely. These solutions should be confirmed via their local data protection officer and CCG to ensure they do not pose unreasonable security risks. If local commissioners are unable to respond, please contact your regional head of digital technology who will be able to escalate if necessary.

3. Smartcards New procedures have been agreed that will allow smartcards to be provided remotely. Guidance is being finalised and will be available shortly from NHS Digital. The current smart card session time of ten hours will be increased to twelve hours.

Source: NHS England – Guidance and standard operating procedures. General practice in the context of coronavirus (COVID-19). Version 2.1. [6 April 2020]