Patients trust you with their health information, and your diary depends on systems that work from the first appointment to the last. We help North East clinics and practices keep patient data secure and keep the day running.
Health information is special category data under UK GDPR and needs a higher level of protection than ordinary personal data.
Providers with access to NHS patient data and systems are expected to complete the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit each year.
Practice management software, imaging equipment, card machines and phones all need to work from the first patient to the last.
Reception and treatment room computers are used by several people, often in view of patients, which makes access control and screen privacy important.
Healthcare providers of all sizes are targeted, and losing access to patient records means cancelled appointments.
Private clinics, dental practices, physiotherapists, opticians, aesthetics clinics and other independent providers rely on technology in almost every part of the day: online booking, practice management software, digital imaging, card payments, phones and email. Most are small teams without an IT person, and the clinicians who run them would much rather be treating patients than fixing computers.
Cyber Fits looks after the IT of businesses with around 5 to 100 staff across the North East, including healthcare clinics. We take care of the systems and the security so you can focus on patients.
Under UK GDPR, information about a person's health is special category data. That means you need both a lawful basis for using it and an additional condition for processing special category data, and you must protect it with appropriate technical and organisational measures. If a breach is likely to put people at risk, it generally has to be reported to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours of you becoming aware of it.
The technical side of that is where we help. In practice it means:
Many independent providers, including dental practices and clinics carrying out regulated activities, must be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which looks at how services are run, including how records are managed and kept secure.
If your practice has access to NHS patient data and systems, for example because you provide NHS dental care, you are expected to complete the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit and publish an assessment each year against the National Data Guardian's data security standards. Many of its questions are technical: are devices supported and updated, is antivirus in place, are backups tested, who has administrator access? We help practices gather the evidence and put right any gaps. We are not a CQC adviser or an NHS body, so we focus on the IT side and work alongside your practice manager.
A clinic that cannot open its diary or view an X ray has to start cancelling patients. We look after the computers, network and connections your practice management and imaging software run on, and we work with your software and equipment suppliers when there is a problem. Managed IT support includes monitoring, so failing hardware and missed updates are spotted early.
We also design networks and WiFi that keep clinical systems, staff devices, card machines and patient WiFi separate, so a visitor's phone can never see your patient records. Through our sister brand Virtual Voice Office we can provide phone systems that make it easier to manage busy reception lines.
When you open a new treatment room or a second site, we can plan the network points, WiFi, phones and computers in advance, so the new space is ready on the day your first patient arrives.
We are a family run IT company based in Sunderland, supporting businesses across Tyne and Wear, County Durham and Teesside. You get a small, friendly team who learn how your practice works, plain English advice and one fixed monthly cost. We plan changes around your clinic hours so patients are not affected. Book a free IT review to see where your practice stands.
Our healthcare work focuses on private clinics, dental practices and allied health providers. GP practices usually have IT provided through NHS arrangements, so please talk to us first if you are a GP practice and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.
Yes, with the technical questions. We help practices gather evidence about devices, updates, antivirus, backups and access control, and fix any gaps. Your practice remains responsible for the submission and for the policy and governance sections.
Yes. We support the computers, servers, network and connections that your practice management and imaging software rely on, and we deal with your software supplier directly when there is a problem.
Yes. We set up patient WiFi on its own separate network, so visitors can get online without any route to your clinical systems, card machines or staff computers.
Yes. Updates, upgrades and installations are planned outside your busiest sessions, and most support issues are fixed remotely without interrupting appointments.
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Book a free, no obligation IT review. We will look at your setup, tell you honestly what needs attention and give you a clear fixed monthly price.
