Boosting Connectivity in Healthcare
When it comes to hospital environments, there’s no room for unreliable phone signal. Whether it’s staff trying to call each other during an emergency, doctors accessing patient records on the move, or patients keeping in touch with family, solid mobile connectivity is an essential.
At Signal Solutions, we’ve spent years helping healthcare facilities across the UK and Europe get the strong, consistent coverage they desperately need. Working with Nextivity’s CEL-FI equipment, we’ve tackled all sorts of tricky buildings and unique challenges, ensuring hospitals, clinics, and surgeries can rely on their mobile network at any hour.
Below, we’ll share why mobile signal matters so much in hospitals, and spotlight a recent installation we completed for a brand new NHS hospital in Chester.
Why Reliable Mobile Signal Matters in Hospitals
With so much happening across wards, clinics, and departments, there's so much behind the scenes that depends on people being able to communicate quickly and clearly. Here are just a few key reasons why strong mobile signal makes such a huge difference:
Patient Monitoring and Care: Doctors and nurses often rely on mobile apps and devices to check patient stats, record notes, or even deliver test results.
Access to Electronic Health Records (EHRs): With so many patient records moving online, healthcare staff increasingly need instant, secure access from wherever they are in the building.
Telemedicine Services: Video calls and remote consultations are more routine than ever, but they need a stable, high-quality signal to actually work.
Emergency Communication: In critical situations, there’s no time for “can you hear me now?” moments. Reliable, building-wide coverage can literally save lives.
Staff Coordination: Everyday hospital operations depend on swift messaging, calls and data-sharing between departments and teams.
Wi-Fi Outages: Even the strongest Wi-Fi networks can go down unexpectedly. When this happens, having mobile signal as a backup means staff still have a reliable way to communicate and access online systems.
Keeping in Touch: For patients and visitors, staying connected with family and friends is really important, especially during longer stays or difficult moments. A strong mobile signal ensures everyone can make calls and send messages without worry, no matter where they are in the hospital.
Chester Hospital - The Challenge
Chester’s latest NHS hospital serves thousands of patients, with staff and visitors relying on their mobiles. The challenge? Like so many modern hospitals, the construction materials: steel frameworks, concrete, and energy-efficient glass, ended up acting as a barrier against mobile signal.
Before our involvement, staff and patients reported:
Patchy reception in critical zones like A&E and certain wards.
Dropped calls during patient handovers.
Inability to consistently access mobile-powered systems.
Growing concerns that response times could be affected, especially during emergencies or busy periods.
A quick note for any healthcare facilities planning new builds or refurbishments:
The issue of poor signal is best tackled right from the beginning of a project, not as an afterthought. Early integration is much more efficient and cost-effective, and avoids chaotic workarounds later on.
The Solution: Our Approach and the Technology Behind It
This is where our Nextivity CEL-FI mobile signal boosters can save the day! To put it simply, these devices capture existing signals from outside a building, amplify them, and distribute the stronger signal throughout the indoor space using discreet internal antennas.
At Signal Solutions, we take a hands-on, consultative approach:
Site Survey / Assessment: We surveyed Chester Hospital to map out every signal 'dead zone', using our testers that pinpoint weak spots and interference.
Tailored Design: We proposed a reliable, future-proof CEL-FI solution which will guarantee coverage in every corner.
Installation: Our engineers worked closely with hospital staff to schedule installation with minimal disruption, keeping patient safety and privacy top of mind.
For Chester Hospital, our team installed:
4 x External Antennas (mounted outside to draw in the strongest possible signals from nearby mobile masts)
1 x CEL-FI QUATRA 4000 Network Unit (the 'brains' of the system which clears the signal up and sends it to the CU)
12 x CEL-FI QUATRA 4000 Coverage Units (to extend signal throughout all the key areas)
48 x Internal Antennas (perfectly placed for full coverage across all wards, clinics and corridors)
1 x CEL-FI QUATRA 4000 Fibre Hub (the fibre hub is used to connect multiple coverage units using fibre optic cables, rather than traditional coaxial cables. This allows the signal to travel over much longer distances without any drop in quality which is perfect for large, busy hospital buildings.)
Implementation & Results
The installation at Chester was smooth, thanks to the coordination and the NHS project team. We worked around busy wards and ensured everything was up and running without fuss.
Immediate Improvements:
Staff could make clear, reliable calls from anywhere in the building, no more pacing to windows or doorways for a signal!
Secure, reliable data transmission for EHRs and medical devices.
Better experience for patients and visitors staying connected with their loved ones.
Long-term Benefits:
Communication is now seamless between teams and departments, enhancing patient safety and care.
The system’s scalability means future expansions can be supported easily.
Maintenance is straightforward, meaning the NHS team can focus on patient care.
They can manage their systems all via our Amplifi-Qx portal! It's essentially a portal where all their system information is available via a hub and they can see floor plans, proposals, how well the devices are working, any system updates that are needed, etc.
Another Example: NHS Mersey Care - Clock View Hospital
A couple of years ago, we installed a CEL-FI QUATRA 1000 system for NHS Mersey Care at Clock View Hospital. Despite being an earlier version of our signal boosting technology, the QUATRA 1000 still does an excellent job and keeps the hospital reliably connected.
Before installation, staff struggled to communicate efficiently and there was unreliable signal in key areas, making day-to-day communication challenging just like Chester. After fitting the booster system, the signal improved instantly. Many people think that it takes a while for the signal booster to kick in, but that's definitely not the case! Now, both staff, visitors and patients enjoy strong, consistent coverage across the whole hospital.
We’re incredibly proud to support the NHS and healthcare partners like Chester Hospital and NHS Mersey Care. So, if you’re involved in running, designing, or upgrading a healthcare facility, don’t leave connectivity until the last minute. Get in touch with our team to find out how mobile signal enhancement can transform your operations, now and for years to come.