Information Services for the NHS in Wales
7 January 2011
AWHILES (All Wales Health Information & Library Extension Services) is a partnership of NHS Wales and Cardiff University health libraries providing health information to support education, training and patient care for NHS Wales staff, and Cardiff University staff and students on placement.
All 28 AWHILES libraries use the Cardiff University and Wales NHS Voyager library management system, which is hosted and maintained centrally by Information Services.
From the mid 1990s, the goal was to create an all-Wales resource that gave users one access point to search for the location and availability of health-related material in any Welsh District General Hospital library.
Among the system's main benefits to NHS and Cardiff University health staff and students are:
- The largest database of health books and journals in Wales, providing unrivalled access to detailed information on evidence-based patient care, healthcare education and research;
- Standardisation of library operational services to users across Wales. This is of particular help to undergraduate health students and training grade doctors and dentists when moving around Wales on placements or rotations, as they don’t need to be taught different systems each time they move;
- Library staff can keep track of material across Wales as all libraries use the circulation module. The shared model also means that book processing is shared across Wales, so if one library has already catalogued a title, the work doesn’t need to be replicated;
- The quality-assured data management system across Wales with full back-up service in case of emergencies and data loss, as well as a specialist central team of systems staff to support the service.
It's estimated that, by providing this service centrally to AWHILES, Information Services is saving the NHS in Wales around £250,000 per year (approximately the charge for an external organisation, taking into account staff, software, hardware, support, and so on).