Whittington Health NHS Trust old tech is being made available for good causes across the local community and also saving the Trust £1,400 a year.
Any PC, laptop or mobile phone will eventually come to the end of its useful life. They slow down, parts break and eventually they have to be replaced, rather than going to landfill they are being repaired, recycled and donated to places that can make use of it.
In an average year the trust, which has over 4,000 staff, replaces around 350 PCs, as well as laptops and mobile phones. All hard disks are wiped by our IT team to ensure that no sensitive or private content remains on them before they are handed over to CTR the company helping with the scheme. The company then shreds the hard disk to make absolutely sure that all personal information is destroyed before the machines are refurbished.
The equipment is then made available to a range of good causes. CTR have provided retired Whittington Health IT equipment to homeless shelters all over the UK so that people with nowhere to live can learn basic IT skills which will in turn help them to engage with the services they need, such as benefits or housing advice, as well as gaining skills to help them back into work.
Later in the year the trust will be replacing its current stock of mobile phones to allow them to use new clinical systems which require more modern handsets. This will not only improve the care that patients receive, but their old phones will be provided to midwives in Africa to enable them to provide better care to theirs.
Their refurbished laptops are now also included in the “School-in-a-Box” project, supported by various worldwide charities including UNICEF. Materials for an entire classroom are packed into a large portable aluminium case.
Andi King MBCS IT Assets & Contracts Manager for the trust explains that this isn’t simply about the trust doing the right thing for others, it also saves the trust money which can be reinvested into patient care: “If we were not involved in this scheme we would have to spend between £3-£5 per computer for it to be taken away and broken down for parts and recycling. That means that doing the right thing for others actually saves the trust over £1,400 per year. That makes it a win-win situation for us, for our patients, for people who need access to low cost computing and for the planet.”
Adrian Moore, Head of Business Development at CTR Group, proudly handles the Whittington equipment. “I have been involved in IT recycling charity projects for over 15 years now, I had the privilege of working for 2 years with UNICEF and seeing first-hand the way used IT can change lives for the better.”
“Organisations like Whittington Health NHS Trust and people like Andi and the team should be commended. It is a privilege to know and work with them and I will be forever grateful.”
