What network infrastructure does a new care home need?

For developers and main contractors, the network is easy to underestimate. It’s a small part of the overall budget, but it underpins almost every system the operator will rely on once the home opens. Getting it wrong is expensive to fix in an occupied building.

Here’s what a new-build care home needs, roughly in the order it should be planned.

1. An incoming fibre connection — ordered early

Fibre lead times can run to months, particularly where civil works are needed. The connection should be specified and ordered early in the programme so it’s live before handover, with the route into the building agreed with the provider.

2. A backup connection

A Starlink or 5G backup, with a router and firewall that fail over automatically, keeps cloud-based care systems and monitoring running if the fibre line goes down.

3. A properly specified comms room

The comms room or cabinet location needs enough space for network, telecoms and other building systems, dedicated power, adequate cooling or ventilation, and room to grow. It’s much harder to find space later.

4. Backbone and switching

Larger homes need fibre links between the main comms room and cabinets on each floor or wing. Switching must have enough ports and power over Ethernet capacity for every access point and connected device.

5. Structured cabling and data points

The data point schedule — where every access point, staff point and building-system connection goes — should be issued with the electrical design, so containment and cabling can go in at first fix. Cabling should be terminated, labelled and tested before the active equipment arrives.

6. WiFi designed room by room

Access points positioned to cover bedrooms through closed fire doors as well as corridors and communal areas, sized for realistic device numbers, and placed so they look considered.

7. A segmented network

Separate networks for care and operations, staff, residents, guests, building systems, security and voice, each with suitable priority and security rules.

8. Commissioning, documentation and handover

Coverage, roaming and failover testing before handover, as-built records of the equipment and configuration, and a proper walkthrough for the operator — ideally with someone continuing to support the network once residents move in.

Coordinating it all

Most of these items cross the boundaries between trades: the electrical contractor, the M&E designer, the internet provider, nurse-call and access-control suppliers. Having one specialist responsible for the network — and for coordinating those interfaces — is what keeps it on programme.

If you’re planning a new home or a programme of homes, talk to us about a new-build project.