Hospital patients to face self-service check-ins

Wireless internet access will also be available throughout all five Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust sites by next summer.

The moves are among initiatives to install up-to-date technology.

A contract to run self-service patients check-in kiosks, which have already been piloted, is about to be awarded.

Wi-fi should be installed across the trust, with coverage in 60 per cent of the organisation by next January and full coverage by July.

Most departments also now use a £1.9m digital dictation system.

When doctors record correspondence, instead of secretaries transcribing their words, speech recognition software is used.

Hospital bosses agreed early last year to the roll out, leading to the equivalent of 90 of 370 full-time jobs being lost over two years by not replacing departing staff.

Directors have been told that introducing the scheme led to the average backlog of clinic letters falling from 28 days to four.