FREE Wi-Fi is now available for patients at all Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust sites and almost all GP surgeries across the county.

Patients can use their smart phones or other devices to go online in order to keep up to date with the news, with relatives or to learn more about their condition. Patients just need to choose Wi-Fi Spark from the Wi-Fi options on their device to log in.

The news comes in advance of the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, announcing that every NHS building will provide free Wi-Fi to patients and their families as part of its drive to be digital and paperless by 2020.

Farouq Din, Interim Head of e-Health Cumbria at the Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are passionate about putting the patient at the centre of everything we do and I think this is an important step in providing free access to this key service. Our patients may have travelled across the county for treatment so the free Wi-Fi will also give them more ways to keep in touch with their loved ones during their stay, possibly reducing their anxiety and aiding their recovery.