UHB Network Support Services

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) is initiating a preliminary market engagement exercise in preparation for a formal procurement of Network Support Services. UHB is one of the largest NHS Trusts in England, operating multiple hospital sites including Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital, and Solihull Hospital, alongside community and specialist clinics.

The Trust seeks to engage with suppliers capable of delivering a comprehensive, secure, and future-ready network infrastructure service that supports clinical operations, research, and enterprise IT across its estate.

The future contract will encompass the management, support, and strategic development of the following:

• Core Network (Cisco): High-availability backbone designed to vendor best practice and resilient architecture
• Datacentre Network (Cisco): Supporting mission-critical clinical and Trust systems with high throughput and disaster recovery capability
• Distribution Layer (Cisco): Scalable and resilient aggregation for Trust and campus connectivity.
• Access Layer (Cisco, Extreme): Managed wired connectivity across the Trust estate, providing reliable access for clinical and administrative users
• Wi-Fi Infrastructure (Cisco & Extreme): High-density wireless coverage to support mobile devices, laptops, clinical equipment, and guest access
• Network Access Control (Forescout): Policy-based access control, device profiling, and integration with security monitoring solutions
• Firewall Services (Fortigate): Perimeter and internal segmentation firewalls, configured for high availability and compliant with Trust, NHS, and NCSC requirements
• VPN Services (FortiClient & FortiAuthenticator): Secure remote access, MFA integration, and scalability to support hybrid working
• Wide Area Network (WAN): Site-to-site connectivity across hospitals, community services, and cloud providers, with resilience, bandwidth optimisation, and QoS management
• Emerging Technologies (e.g., GPON, SD-WAN): Capability to adopt and support evolving network technologies

Additional requirements include

• Monitoring, Management, and Reporting Tools: Centralised NOC operations, SLA reporting, capacity planning, and integration with Trust monitoring systems
• Future-Proofing and Scalability: Cloud readiness, multi-vendor integration, and support for NHS interoperability standards
• Cyber Security and Compliance: Cyber resilience, vulnerability management, and compliance with NHS Digital, NCSC, and ISO27001
• Training and Knowledge Transfer: Provision of skills uplift and vendor certification to UHB IT staff
• Lifecycle Management: Planning and execution of hardware refreshes, software updates, and end-of-life transitions