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The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust needed a modern, cloud-based replacement for their local Heritage system. By joining forces with Warrington and Halton NHS Hospitals Trust on a shared Soutron platform, both libraries improved services, reduced duplication, and cut costs.
NHS library staff needed a system that worked across both Trusts, gave clinical and non-clinical staff easy access to books and online resources from any device, and delivered ongoing support without the limitations of a locally-hosted solution. Soutron provided a fully managed, cloud-based platform that covered all of it, with cataloging tools, automated overdue notices, and a shared search portal accessible from any internet-connected device.
The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is a 600-bed large district General Hospital located on the Countess of Chester Health Park with a 64 bedded Intermediate Care Service at Ellesmere Port Hospital.
The Trust has almost 4,000 employees and provides a range of medical services to more than 445,000 patients every year, across Western Cheshire, Ellesmere Port, Neston and North Wales areas.
The Education and Training Centre Library at the COCH provides support to clinical and non-clinical staff to aid their decision making, evidence-based practice, patient care and safety, research and lifelong learning.
“Soutron LMS provides very good value and we get a lot out of it. It’s such an improvement on our previous provider and solution.”
Virginia Jordan
Acting Librarian
After asking other library services in the area for recommendations based on their experiences, the Librarian at Warrington and Halton NHS Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust suggested considering Soutron as they were very happy with this product and the support they receive. Warrington and Halton NHS Hospitals NHSFT had been using the Soutron LMS since they moved away from Heritage in 2011 and never looked back.
In addition, by merging the catalogs both Trusts could potentially benefit from further cost savings by sharing their print collection, avoiding duplication of book purchases.
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After the initial demonstration of Soutron and their cloud-based, fully managed Library Management System, it was decided that a combined system would be a perfect fit for the needs of all library users, as well as the library staff.
Virginia Jordan, Acting Librarian at the EdTC Library said “Soutron is a very user-friendly product and easy to get to grips with. We took Soutron onboard as an extension to the service that both Trusts already provided as this made sense financially too.”
With such a flexible and affordable solution in place EdTC Library at COCH have found the cloud-based Soutron system helping them with day-to-day tasks within the library. Virginia says, “We love the cataloging functions, thesaurus and reports provided, even the online tools that allow us to update the templates for overdue letters, that the system generates automatically. Our end users can renew items with just a couple of clicks; it’s all very easy to work with and it looks fantastic!”
With a new search portal in place for both NHS Libraries (Countess of Chester Hospital NHSFT & Warrington and Halton NHS Hospitals NHSFT), all users of the catalog can carry out their own research for books and online resources offered by both library services via any internet connected mobile, tablet or desktop computer.
Virginia was also very keen to share the service experience received from Soutron’s ongoing support and helpdesk.
She says “I have never experienced such attentive help and support from a previous LMS provider, I really must praise Matt for all the help he has provided on the helpdesk, no matter how large or small my requests are!”
Virginia adds “Soutron LMS provides very good value and we get a lot out of it. It’s such an improvement on our previous provider and solution.”
To learn more about the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust, visit their website: www.coch.nhs.uk
To find out how you can migrate to a fast, cloud-based library management system to support your healthcare library and NHS Trust, book a 20 minute discovery call with us today, see below.
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The first step is to learn more. Here's how we can answer your questions:
Yes. Soutron can host multiple NHS Trust libraries on one cloud-based platform with a shared catalog. The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust and Warrington and Halton NHS Hospitals Trust merged their library services on Soutron, enabling shared print collections and joint catalog searching for all staff across both Trusts.
Yes. Soutron is a direct replacement for locally-hosted library systems including Heritage. The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust migrated from Heritage to Soutron's cloud-based platform, gaining automated cataloging, overdue notices, reporting tools, and a modern search portal without managing local infrastructure.
Yes. Soutron's search portal is fully accessible from any internet-connected device including mobile phones, tablets, and desktop computers. NHS clinical and non-clinical staff can search books and online resources from the library catalog wherever they are.
Soutron provides dedicated helpdesk support for all library management queries, large or small. Virginia Jordan, Acting Librarian at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust, described the support as the best she had received from any LMS provider, noting the responsiveness and quality of assistance available to her team day to day.
