SECURITY
mothers and newborns. Pharmacies contain controlled drugs and high value medic’ines that must be carefully managed and not risk being abused or stolen.
Laboratories, research areas, and
intensive care units – together with server rooms – hold critical equipment and data that underpin the wider organisation. Even non-clinical spaces, such as staff rest areas, must be safe so employees can work long shifts without concern. The central challenge is to allow staff, patients, and authorised visitors to move freely where appropriate while preventing access to areas that require protection. A system that obstructs clinical work is not acceptable, yet a system that allows free access to everyone undermines safety.
Safeguarding people Workplace violence is a well-documented issue in healthcare. NHS staff, particularly in emergency and mental health settings, can be exposed to aggression from patients or visitors under stress. National guidance highlights the importance of protecting staff and ensuring they feel secure at work. Access control systems support this goal by creating safe spaces, allowing areas to be locked down if needed, and enabling rapid responses to incidents. Visitor management is equally important. Hospitals must be welcoming, but they cannot permit unrestricted access to wards or treatment areas. Systems that track, record, and direct visitors help ensure that people reach the correct destinations while reducing the risk of disruption. The NHS has issued a range of
guidance covering physical security, information governance, and staff safety. These include requirements for access to medicines, standards for protecting digital data, and training for handling incidents. Increasingly, the focus is on integrated systems that connect physical access with digital identity.
The shift towards digital identity Digital identity is becoming a central tool in healthcare security. Instead of managing multiple keys, cards, or registers, hospitals are moving towards platforms where staff identities are linked directly to access permissions. This not only improves protection but also makes administration more efficient, allowing central teams to monitor and adjust permissions in real time. The overall landscape is therefore
defined by a balance between openness and control, and by the need for systems that are both resilient and adaptable. Hospitals cannot compromise on safety, but they must also maintain the flow of people and services that defines healthcare.
IFHE DIGEST 2026
Blackpool Victoria Hospital main entrance. Blackpool Victoria Hospital, one of the
largest and busiest hospitals in the North West of England, offers a clear example of how these issues are being addressed. The hospital recently upgraded its access control systems, seeking to improve both safety and efficiency. Its experience demonstrates how investment in security infrastructure supports not only the protection of assets but also the smooth running of clinical services.
Spotlight on Blackpool Victoria Hospital Blackpool Victoria Hospital serves a wide catchment area providing treatment for thousands of patients each year. Also acting as a teaching hospital, its scale, complexity, age (it opened in 1894) and constant flow of people make it representative of the pressures faced by major NHS hospitals. The hospital’s age and size mean it
must manage a variety of security demands simultaneously. Emergency services need rapid and unrestricted access. Sensitive areas such as maternity and intensive care must be carefully protected. Pharmacies require a system that ensures only authorised staff can access controlled medicines, while administrative departments need safeguards for confidential information. Maintaining consistent security
standards across such a large estate is difficult. If systems are fragmented, inefficiencies and gaps emerge. Blackpool identified the need for a centralised solution that could provide oversight while still being flexible enough to meet the requirements of individual departments. For Blackpool, access control was
about resilience, oversight, and adaptability. As the hospital’s head of digital identity, Martyn McKechnie, explained: “As a busy hospital with multiple departments and critical areas, we required an access control system that could integrate seamlessly while offering high levels of security and administrative control. The hospital required both control and
responsiveness. Central oversight allows incidents to be managed quickly, while scalability ensures that as services expand or change, the security system can adapt without disruption. To that end, it selected our PAC Access Central platform, integrated across multiple PC workstations for global administration. Advanced 500 series controllers, including the 511 and 512 models, were installed and linked into existing servers. This combination of ethernet and RS485 connectivity allowed flexibility in connecting different parts of the site while maintaining efficiency and coherence. A server based architecture was
chosen to provide redundancy and resilience. For a facility that cannot afford downtime, this was critical. If one part of the system fails, another can take over, ensuring continuous protection. The architecture was also designed with future demands in mind, ensuring the hospital would not need to replace the system as requirements evolve. The result was a system that combined
resilience, flexibility, and oversight. For Blackpool, it created an environment where staff could focus on patient care knowing that critical areas were protected and administrators could manage security across the site with confidence.
Technology in action The Blackpool project illustrates the types of technologies hospitals now seek when upgrading security. Hospitals need systems that are
scalable, so that additional departments can be added without major disruption. They also need integration, so that access control connects with other infrastructure such as fire alarms, CCTV, and digital identity platforms. Server based systems are often
preferred because they allow centralised management and provide built in redundancy. Flexible connectivity, using ethernet and other protocols, ensures that both new and older parts of a hospital estate can be connected without wholesale replacement of infrastructure.
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