NHS Lincolnshire added that smartcards are also being used to provide physical staff identification, cutting out the need for a separate card at £5.50 a time, which if deployed for 7,500 staff would equate to a saving of over £41,000.

On top of these extra uses, smartcards are now being used for car park access, cashless vending among staff, and for a single sign-on system for PCs/laptops and applications, which will help reduce pressure on the organisation's helpdesk.

Gay said support calls were reduced through integrated uses as staff only have to remember a pin code similar to their bank card. Gay said: "We have also found that by making greater use of the smartcard we have been able to reduce the number of identity checks staff are required to do to obtain various forms of ID in order to do their job."

Last year, it was announced that using Imprivata's desktop single sign-on system.