06:19 > Tuesday 9th February 2010
Trust is set to crack down on porn
12 July 2007
MORE than £70,000 will be spent on policing the internet at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust's hospitals.
Annual figures just released show that the Trust's hospitals, including Lister in Stevenage, will be spending the money next year to crack down on misuse of the internet.
However, Trust spokesman Peter Gibson was keen to point out that the money will not come from staffing budgets as it will not be spent on manpower to monitor the web.
"Because it is a capital project it means the money will not be used to employ staff," he said.
"There are thousands of computers and we are making investments into new, more effective software.
"We need to know that the staff at the NHS are using their computers for business purposes.
"The viewing of porn sites is something that we have had little evidence of but we want to make sure that the IT systems are being used for a good purpose.
"It is about protecting the Trust from malicious use"
He added: "It would be for control procedures ranging from preventing porn being viewed to making sure that our information is protected.
"We need to make sure we have good protection so nothing malicious can happen."
On top of the £70,500 investment into internet policing, almost £12,000 will be spent on Spyware tools to prevent internet surfers from accessing confidential hospital information.
The release of these figures comes a year after an investigation revealed that two hospital workers were disciplined for looking at pornography on work computers.
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