NHS Unifies Three Hospitals with Extreme Platform ONE and Fabric to Create a Secure Digital Foundation

United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULTH) is one of the largest acute hospital trusts in England, delivering essential healthcare services across multiple hospital sites and serving a large and diverse patient population. With increasing reliance on digital clinical systems, a new EPR system connected medical devices and mobile healthcare technologies, the Trust required a modern network infrastructure capable of supporting both current operational needs and future digital transformation initiatives.

To achieve this, ULTH partnered with Charterhouse and Extreme Networks to undertake a major network modernisation programme that would transform a complex legacy environment into a resilient, secure and scalable network platform.

Over many years, ULTH's network had evolved into a collection of independently managed environments built on multiple generations of legacy Cisco infrastructure. Across its three acute hospital sites in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham, the Trust was operating 312 switches spread across 118 communications cabinets.

While the network had supported the organisation for many years, the growing demands of modern healthcare were exposing its limitations. Multiple hardware platforms, inconsistent software versions and ageing equipment were increasing operational complexity and creating challenges around supportability, scalability and cybersecurity. The fragmented architecture also required greater management effort for troubleshooting, maintenance and service delivery.

At the same time, the Trust was embarking on a broader digital transformation journey. Critically, the network refresh was a prerequisite for the successful deployment of a new Electronic Patient Record (EPR) platform, an initiative designed to enhance clinical workflows, improve access to patient information and ultimately support better patient outcomes across the region.

ULTH therefore needed a strategic technology partner capable of delivering a modern network architecture that would not only address immediate operational challenges but also provide a secure and resilient foundation for future healthcare innovation.

Working as a team, Charterhouse and Extreme Networks built ULTH's new infrastructure on two pillars: Extreme Fabric Connect and Extreme Platform ONE.

Fabric Connect collapsed 312 independent legacy switches into one intelligent, software-driven network. The new platform introduced end-to-end network segmentation, simplified service provisioning, automated network operations and enhanced resilience, significantly reducing management complexity while creating a scalable foundation for future growth. Gone were multiple hardware platforms and manual management. In their place: automated operations, end-to-end segmentation, and the scalability to support whatever comes next.

Platform ONE layered operational intelligence on top and offers real-time visibility across all three hospital sites. It also offers predictive analytics to spot problems before they become outages and AI-powered workflows to keep the network running without the need for constant IT intervention. For a large acute trust managing mission-critical systems, this meant fewer firefights and more time spent planning ahead.

But the real win was execution. In healthcare, downtime isn't an inconvenience, it's a patient experience issue. Charterhouse and Extreme adopted a clinical-first approach: zero tolerance for disruption. Every migration was meticulously planned, tested and executed during controlled windows by the digital team.

Charterhouse led the assessment, design, migration planning and implementation activities, while Extreme provided the AI-powered networking platform, architectural expertise and vendor support required to deliver the solution successfully. Together, the organisations developed a standardised network architecture spanning all three acute hospital sites, replacing 312 legacy switches with modern, high-performance infrastructure.

The result was a seamless transition from a fragmented legacy environment to a modern, resilient network capable of supporting the Trust's ambitions for digital healthcare.

The transformation has delivered significant operational, technical and clinical benefits for ULTH.

The Trust now operates a unified network architecture across its acute hospital estate and community diagnostic centres, replacing multiple independently managed environments with a consistent and highly scalable fabric-based platform managed through Extreme Platform ONE. This has simplified day-to-day operations while providing a more agile foundation for ongoing technology investment.

Reliability and resilience have improved significantly. The new infrastructure supports critical healthcare services including Electronic Patient Records, clinical applications, medical devices, unified communications and administrative systems, helping ensure uninterrupted access to the services clinicians depend upon every day. Enhanced redundancy and failover capabilities have also reduced the risk of unplanned outages and service disruption.

Performance improvements across the network have delivered higher bandwidth availability, lower latency and faster response times for users. This enables healthcare professionals to access information more quickly, supporting more efficient workflows and informed clinical decision-making.

The modernised infrastructure has also strengthened the Trust's cybersecurity posture. By replacing legacy equipment approaching end-of-support status, ULTH has gained access to ongoing security updates, improved segmentation capabilities and a more secure platform aligned to NHS information governance requirements.

Importantly, the new network provides the technological foundation required to support future healthcare innovation. Increased Power over Ethernet capacity and enhanced connectivity enable the adoption of next-generation wireless technologies, mobile clinical devices, Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) solutions and other digital healthcare initiatives.

Advanced visibility, analytics and diagnostic capabilities within Extreme Platform ONE have also improved operational support, helping IT teams identify issues more rapidly, accelerate root cause analysis and reduce time to resolution when incidents occur.

The partnership between Charterhouse, Extreme and United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust demonstrates how a well-planned network modernisation programme can become a catalyst for broader digital transformation.

By combining Charterhouse's expertise in designing and delivering complex healthcare infrastructure projects with Extreme Fabric Connect and Extreme Platform ONE, ULTH has successfully transitioned from a fragmented legacy environment to a modern, secure and resilient network platform.

The new infrastructure not only improves operational efficiency and service resilience today but also provides the critical foundation needed to support the Trust's Electronic Patient Record deployment and the next generation of digital healthcare services for clinicians, staff and patients across Lincolnshire. The success of the initial network transformation programme has led to a significant expansion of the partnership between United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Charterhouse.

Following the successful deployment of Extreme Networks Fabric across the Trust's three acute hospital sites, the architecture is now being adopted more widely across the Lincolnshire Integrated Care System (ICS).

By creating a common network fabric across multiple healthcare organisations, Lincolnshire is establishing a standardised digital infrastructure that simplifies operations, enhances security, improves user experience and Extreme Wi-Fi 7 wireless connectivity between care settings.

This provides a scalable foundation for integrated care delivery, supporting clinicians with reliable access to critical systems and patient information regardless of location, while helping to improve collaboration and patient outcomes across the wider health and care community.