HSCN Unified
Communications Service

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Health and Social Care Network Unified Communications Overview

The service provides an easy to consume, UK sovereign, interoperable telephony,
unified communications and video platform for health and social care.

Cinos has vast experience in delivering always on, hybrid cloud unified communications services to a range of acute and community healthcare services. For a long time, we have argued that the critical communications services, especially within a healthcare environment, should not be consumed from public cloud services or via the Internet.

Today, we stand by our belief that the critical telephony services provided into acute hospitals and community services need to be robust, easy to use and always available. These include the telephone handsets in wards, red phones and patient facing services and contact centres. That said, there are a wide range of users where a desktop unified communications service, which includes telephony, messaging desktop sharing and video conferencing adds significant value.

The same applies to video conferencing services. Organisations recognise that to deliver video conferencing services in an MDT setting, the equipment and services that sit behind them must be always available, easy to use and backed by a comprehensive support process. The MDT setting and services consumed in an MDT are vastly different to a standard video conference, but often there is a blur between the technology used.

The Cinos HSCN Unified Communications Service combines Cinos’ pedigree in critical communications services with the cloud delivered unified communications and collaborative tools enjoyed by users in the modern workplace.

If you are seeking professional guidance for your project and would prefer to speak directly with an expert, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Our team are on hand to discuss your requirements so why not get the ball rolling today.

  • Supports working at an Integrated Care System level through providing a single and flexible communications platform across any care setting
  • Delivers calls to both physical handsets and your choice of cloud UC service, including Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex Teams
  • Enables calls from Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex Teams to the wider telephony estate, including extension dialling
  • Delivers calls to both physical handsets and your choice of cloud UC service, including Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex Teams
  • Fully supports and enables home and remote working without the need for VPN
  • Allows Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex Teams users to place external calls to the public telephone network for calling external organisations and patients at home for example
  • Provides a robust platform and support service for scheduling, hosting and managing MDT and other crucial video conference meetings
  • Bridges MDT and other room-based video conferences with external destinations and cloud services including Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Webex
  • Interoperates with, and provides a migration path away from traditional telephony services, including legacy analogue / digital PBX
  • Interoperates with paging systems
  • Supports omni-channel (telephone, email and web-chat) contact and single point of access centres
  • Is directly connected to the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN), providing additional levels of security and Quality of Service over and above Internet delivered cloud services

  • Provides a blend of the best of both worlds – keep crucial telephony services in clinical settings and contact centres performing with the tools they need to function; physical handsets in wards and choice or combination of physical handsets and software clients for remote working in contact centres for example

  • Is delivered from a resilient, UK sovereign platform as a fully managed and supported service by a company who specialises in unified communications in health and care
  • Offers a wide range of customisable options including voicemail, call queue, auto attendants, call recording and switchboard services

  • Allows organisations to bring existing telephone number ranges to the service and port them away should they decide to in the future
  • Offers competitive bundled minutes or a la carte rates for external calls

The Cinos HSCN service can be tailored to meet the needs of almost any use case.


We have collated a few of the common ones below.

Shared Telephone Handsets

  • A static handset, commonly on ward stations, in corridors or lifts for example
  • Can be enabled with an internal extension number, public telephone number (or both) and have services such as voicemail, call pickup and hunt groups applied
Shared Telephone Handsets

Desk Based Users

  • Makes use of a handset or soft client (or both) for telephony and can have services such as voicemail, call pickup and hunt groups applied
  • Often hosts or participates in conference calls or video / desktop sharing meetings using Microsoft Teams, Webex or Zoom
Desk Based Users

Stellaris for MS Teams, Cisco Webex and Zoom

Mobile Users

  • Roam the campus or out in the community
  • Makes use of a soft client (or both) for telephony and can have services such as voicemail, call pickup and hunt groups applied
  • Often hosts or participates in conference calls or video / desktop sharing meetings using Microsoft Teams, Webex or Zoom
Mobile Users

Contact Centre Agents
and Supervisors

  • Makes use of a handset or soft client (or both) for telephony and primarily makes or receives telephony calls to / from service users and patients
  • Can be campus based or remote, including work from home
  • May have elements of omni-channel contact centres activities within their role, such as responding to email and web-chat response
Contact Centre Agents and Supervisors

Speak to our team today.
We’re here to help.

General Purpose
Meeting Rooms

  • Contain a vast array of screen or video conferencing capabilities, from a multitude of vendors
  • Often struggle to support remote participants and solutions. Cinos solves this through supporting interoperability with Microsoft Teams and Zoom, while also offering access to the meeting via web browser
 General Purpose Meeting Rooms

MDT Rooms

  • Maintain multiple screens or projectors and multiple input sources such as PACS and microscopes for clinical decision making with remote participants
  • Often struggle to support remote participants and solutions. Cinos solves this through supporting interoperability with Microsoft Teams and Zoom, while also offering access to the MDT via web browser
MDT Rooms

Cinos HSCN offers the following additional benefits:

  • Bring any existing standard-based telephone devices and video conferencing equipment with you for use with our service; take it away with you should you decide to leave

  • Bring any existing Cisco Unified Communications licensing with you for use with our service; take it away with you should you decide to leave
  • A Customer Success and Adoption service that focuses on helping you get the best out of our service through frequent user training and ‘art of the possible’ workshops and horizon scanning for new ways of working

Cinos is a Cisco Gold Provider
Cinos is a Cisco Gold Provider

Cisco Gold Provider

As a Cisco Gold Provider, Cinos have demonstrated their expertise and value with a range of Cisco specialisations including Advanced Enterprise Networks Architecture and Advanced Collaboration Architecture. We have invested in highly skilled professionals who have demonstrated their expertise in designing and building solutions that drive business outcomes.

Through demonstrating a high level of technical expertise for Cisco products we are able to identify the best solution for your needs; taking into account your budget and maintenance requirements.