From the world’s first bleep paging system developed in partnership with St Thomas’s Hospital, through to Cloud-based messaging solutions, Multitone has been a key partner to the NHS throughout its 75-year history.
 
In this article we look at how Multitone has adapted to the health service’s changing needs over the years, and how it continues to operate at the heart of digital transformation in the NHS. We examine how the company develops and delivers critical communication services and how it is addressing today’s challenges.
 
Post-war optimism shapes a healthier future
 
1948 was an important year for promoting better health.
 
The World Health Organisation was established – and Britain’s National Health Service Act was passed. On 5 July 1948, the NHS was born. This year is of course the NHS’ 75th anniversary; and over these past eight decades there is much to reflect upon in terms of the progress and evolution of healthcare - and the critical role that communications play.
 
By 1948, Multitone was already well into its second decade. In May 1931, inventor and telephone and sound engineer, Joseph Poliakoff, set up Multitone Electronics, initially manufacturing hearing aids. In those early years, one notable client was none other than Winston Churchill.
 
During the 1950s, Multitone entered the communications sector, specialising in critical messaging. This was the beginning of Multitone’s long standing relationship with the fledgling NHS.
 
The world’s first ‘bleep’ paging system
 
Today, paging systems are in operation throughout the globe and throughout industry including food and beverage, hospitality, healthcare and emergency services, and it all started at Multitone.
 
In 1953 Peter Styles was a technician in St Thomas’ Hospital electronics department, and began working with Multitone on what would become the world’s first ‘bleep’ paging system. Originally hospitals used a complex system of coloured lights and bells. The new paging system allowed nursing and support staff to locate doctors instantly anywhere in the hospital.
 
At the time, this was cutting-edge technology resulting in the extensive use of pagers in the NHS by the 1980s.
 
Relationships based upon trust, shared values, knowledge and experience
 
A large proportion of the Multitone team have worked with the company for many years, even decades, building valuable, long-term relationships with hospitals across the width and breadth of the UK. One such example is in Northern Ireland, where the team has worked since the early 1970s providing the leading hospital with critical communications systems, which have become more and more sophisticated over time.
 
Helping the NHS to meet the challenges of today
 
The UK’s healthcare needs and its society are changing. This requires the NHS to evolve further, to meet these new challenges and use its resources in more efficient and innovative ways. As the acceleration in the digital transformation gathers pace, Multitone is a partner within the NHS SBS Patient/Citizen Communications and Engagement Solutions Framework and is creating new leading-edge solutions and adapting existing ones to meet the demands of the adapting market, including:

• Secure Digital Communications for the mid-2020s and beyond. Hospitals are upgrading their critical communications and building local resilience within their network systems. Multitone is working with many healthcare providers to replace legacy systems with the latest state-of-the-art digital technology such as the Multitone critical messaging platform and critical smart apps.
• Protecting employees. Increasingly, employees in the NHS are working throughout the community as well as in various locations on healthcare sites. Multitone is using its technological expertise and experience to adapt solutions to support the needs of lone worker employees. Multitone’s award-winning EkoTek Staff Safety Solution is a good example, allowing employees to discreetly summon immediate assistance to their location at the touch of a button, should they feel unwell or unsafe.
• Better patient care. Multitone’s innovative EkoCare nurse call solution for care homes, nursing homes and hospitals ensures that whether residents or patients are in bed or mobile, they can get help as quickly as possible at the push of a button.
• Secure and robust infrastructure. The NHS and other organisations face multiple threats of hardware failure, internet outage, power cuts, cyber-crime, workplace floods, fires, and vandalism. Multitone’s Hybrid Cloud Service solution is providing almost certain continuity of critical communications for organisations across the UK.
   

Celebrating the NHS’ 75th – and looking to the future
 
Multitone is proud of its very special, deep-rooted relationship with the NHS, which is based on values, experience, knowledge of what the organisation needs and how the organisation works. The team at Multitone congratulates the NHS on its 75th anniversary and looks forward to helping the service move forward as it evolves well into the future.