The revolutionary Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital opened in June 2015 and is part of a £200million investment to improve healthcare for people in Northumberland and North Tyneside. It is the first hospital in England to have emergency care consultants on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The new emergency care hospital has a state of the art Accident & Emergency department, hi-tech diagnostics, critical care, a short stay paediatric unit along with a consultant and midwifery lead maternity unit.

“To protect patients, staff and property requires the right security solution. Having the highest level of security is of great importance to the new Emergency Care Hospital in addition to proven reliability and cost effectiveness”, said Rory Walker, Operations Director, SPIE Scotshield Limited. “CEM AC2000 access control system and hardware, which is already deployed and proven in similar facilities, offered a solution which met all our requirements.”

CEM AC2000 is a powerful access control solution that comes with a comprehensive range of software applications that enhance site operations. The Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital will utilise both AC2000 VIPPS (Visual Imaging & Pass Production System), which allows users to design professional, quality ID passes which can include text, logos, graphics, photos, barcodes and signatures, and AC2000 AED (Alarm Event Display). AC2000 AED provides a dynamic and real-time graphical view of all alarms and events that occur on the AC2000 system.

Securing over 400 doors throughout the hospital will be the CEM Spass reader, a low cost, contactless smart card reader with powerful security and encryption features. The Spass reader utilises Triple Des encryption and highly secure Desfire technology. When used with the CEM eDCM 350, IP two door controller, the Spass is a highly secure and cost effective solution that helps combat the threat of card cloning.

“Through our extensive experience of providing security solutions to healthcare, we understood that having a highly secure and reliable solution is important. Tyco Security Products were able to meet the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospitals’ key requirement of providing a highly secure solution with the CEM Desfire encrypted solution with SPass readers” said Philip Verner, Regional Sales Director, EMEA, CEM Systems. “Should the Hospital’s needs grow over time the AC2000 security solution also has the flexibility to grow and meet changing requirements without compromising on security.”