The client

North Hampshire Urgent Care (NHUC) is a not‑for‑profit provider of NHS primary care and same‑day services across North and North East Hampshire, Farnham and Surrey Heath. Working as part of the Integrated Urgent Care system, NHUC delivers out‑of‑hours primary care and clinical assessment, and partners with local hospitals to operate Urgent Treatment Centres at Basingstoke & North Hampshire Hospital and at Frimley Park Hospital.

The organisation also runs Talking Therapies locally (via TalkPlus) and supports a population of more than half a million people, handling tens of thousands of patient contacts each year. 

The challenge

NHUC was operating on legacy systems with limited internal IT capacity. An internal audit surfaced urgent needs: stronger security, clear growth planning and consolidation, and the removal of a single point of failure in out‑of‑hours support. The operating model depended on a single weekday IT administrator, leaving on‑call managers to triage incidents without specialist tools or processes: a risk to service continuity as NHUC expanded across more sites and systems. 

Following a tender, Arc embedded alongside NHUC’s internal IT and operations teams. Together we agreed board‑approved timelines and costs, set a clear cadence for delivery (ticketing, monthly reporting, governance), and aligned two complementary programmes: CAB19 (24/7 expert support) and CAB23 (security uplift to regulatory best practice). The focus throughout was a visible plan and measured progress. 

The solution

Arc assumed outsourced IT support and took end‑to‑end ownership of the technology estate. In the first three months, we delivered a structured security uplift and modernised connectivity, replacing legacy firewalls/VPNs with Azure networking and introducing Microsoft 365 multi‑factor authentication and conditional access to provide secure, resilient single sign‑on across clinical and corporate systems. 

Stabilisation was practical and immediate: we cleared the incident backlog; configured and deployed new laptops with minimal disruption; restored critical remote access so clinicians could securely connect to the VPN and continue patient care; and worked on site to close long‑standing EMIS access issues that had resisted previous efforts. We documented the environment and tightened device management (Defender, Intune, encryption, patching) to improve recovery objectives and lay the groundwork for Cyber Essentials Plus. 

To remove the single point of failure, we introduced 24/7 cover with a clear ticketing process and monthly service reporting. On‑call managers now route incidents directly to specialists, reducing delays and the cost of clinician inactivity. A weekday network outage that once depended on two individuals to fix was resolved in minutes under the new model. 

“Partnering with Arc has transformed how we operate day to day”

Simon White, Director of Operations Same Day Care at NHUC

The results

The engagement delivered measurable improvements across resilience, security and user experience: 

  • 72% fewer out-of-hours/on-call support escalations to clinicians: thanks to smoother user experience and direct expert support. 
  • Removed single point of failure: with round-the-clock cover and rapid incident response. 
  • Stronger security posture: fully documented environment, tenant hardening (Defender, Intune, conditional access), device encryption/patching, and roadmap towards Cyber Essentials Plus. 
  • Faster service recovery: examples include resolving a weekday network outage in minutes and restoring EMIS access at Shakespeare Road after long-standing issues. 
  • Operational efficiency: streamlined laptop builds and seamless SSO improved staff experience, freeing managers from ad-hoc IT firefighting. 

Simon White, Director of Operations Same Day Care at NHUC, said: “Partnering with Arc has transformed how we operate day to day. From faster service recovery to a stronger security posture, the improvements have been immediate and measurable. Our teams are no longer tied up with reactive IT issues as they’re free to focus on what really matters: delivering outstanding care.”