A packed four day week, all of it spent in the Leeds office
What did I enjoy?
Lots!
A conversation with an operations colleague where we really got to the heart of what her team wants to achieve for the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) sector. I’d love to spend more time talking like this about the real problems we’re here to solve.
A call with ambulance digital leaders about implementing the NHS Booking and Referral Standard for transferring cases between their trusts. There’s a real will to get this vital piece of interoperability working better, and I really hope we’ll be able to make it happen.
An update with our national director about the use of artificial intelligence in 111 and 999.
Meeting supplier partners who were in Leeds for a commercial event.
Catch ups with deputy directors about the wider themes around access to care. I know this is going to be a big focus for our work, even if it’s not yet clear how or who we will be working with.
“…a project is considered innovative if the number of actors is not known from the outset.” – Bruno Latour
I enjoyed hearing Imogen tell the story of the First Contact initiative, and listening in to a workshop with a regional team about more intelligent ways of navigating patients to the right care for them.
And thanks to a chance chat with delivery manager Ellen in the Leeds office, I got to sit in on the NHS App team’s user research playback for a piece of work they’re doing to improve the experience of booking a GP appointment in the NHS App. This round of research had a special focus on accessibility, including only users with access needs.
Also on Thursday, I welcomed the additional clarity given by the publication of NHS England’s mandate from the Department of Health and Social Care, and the annual planning guidance that NHS England issues to local health systems.
What was hard?
Supporting colleagues on the announcement of more changes to the new NHS England. With this comes a pause in recruitment that, while understandable, means more delays filling roles in our multidisciplinary teams still vacant after the previous re-organisation. We were so close to our target of filling critical vacancies, and this further delay will affect what we’re able to deliver for the NHS frontline in the coming months.
What do I need to take care of?
I need to be mindful of my own feelings about organisation change.
Like many of my colleagues, I choose to work in the NHS because I can see the huge potential for the shift from analogue to digital in health and care, approached in a user-centred, agile, inclusive way. If a new way of working across organisations can make it easier for us to deliver that change, then I’m all for it.
On the other hand, the paralyzing uncertainty and energy consumed by any large scale change process can be incredibly draining for all involved. After the last-but-one NHS digital reorg coincided with a kitchen renovation, I half-jokingly swore I’d never again do home improvements and organisation change simultaneously. Well, here we are again.
Matt Edgar writes here 