What did I enjoy? A busy week, but a good one, in which I could see a number of things coming together. Barbara and Brin talked me through their plans for the digital enablers work in the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Strategy, and we had a good meeting with primary care colleagues as part … Continue reading Weeknote: 20 to 24 June 2022
Back to weeknotes after a short gap to write my reflections on 5 years in the NHS. What did you enjoy? Spending time with digital leaders from the ambulance sector. On Tuesday afternoon, a few colleagues and I had a Teams call with Abigail from North West Ambulance. The next morning I joined the monthly … Continue reading Weeknote: 13 to 17 June 2022
From the start of my time at NHS Digital, I was in the habit of publishing six-monthly updates on my work. I kept up the habit at 6 months, 1 year, 1.5 years (a special favourite), 2 years, 2.5 years, and 3 years. Why the 2 year hiatus? It’s complicated. At 3.5 years, I found … Continue reading This way up: 5 years into my work for the NHS
What did you enjoy? A trip to Norwich to visit the 111 contact centre there. Almost all of the NHS England Digital Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) team were there, along with Gareth, our clinical lead for integrated urgent care, and 4 colleagues from the 111 online team. What made the visit really powerful was … Continue reading Weeknote: 16 to 20 May 2022
What was hard? A workshop to consider how digital might support a changing service model in 111. I was proud of my team, and impressed by the way leaders from different organisations involved in the service approached some difficult things that needed to be said, and needed to be heard. Special credit to Ollie and … Continue reading Weeknote: 9 to 13 May 2022
Back to weeknotes after a short pause for the pre-election period. On Friday I reflected with colleagues that we'd packed a lot in, and it didn't feel like a four-day working week. I spent 2 days in the office, including impromptu face-to-face meetings with colleagues, because we happened to be in on the same day. … Continue reading Weeknote: 3 to 6 May 2022
I signed up for Twitter in November 2006. My friends were talking about it, and it seemed like a fun diversion. My first blog post suggesting Twitter might not be as good as it used to be is dated December 2006. Back in those early days, the service I remember sat at the centre of … Continue reading What’s on your mind? How I’m thinking about microblogging right now
What did you enjoy? I joined in with a Twitter chat under the hashtag #StartWithPeople, as a precursor to a virtual conference coming up on 28 April. Over the years I have seen some good practice in inclusive user-centred design and different ways of bringing people into national NHS decision-making, but there's so much more … Continue reading Weeknote: 4 to 8 April 2022
What did you enjoy? The chance to remotely observe a couple of user research sessions on web chat for 111 clinical consultations, bringing my 2 hours every 6 weeks commitment up to date. A demonstration by an urgent and emergency care system supplier of some new capabilities they're building for their customers who run 111 … Continue reading Weeknote: 28 March to 1 April 2022
I lost 2.5 days of this week to cold-like Covid symptoms. I'm feeling better now but still coughing and testing positive. While I was away, members of the digital UEC teams in NHS England and NHS Digital got to grips with an urgent request as part of our annual planning cycle. On Friday, my colleagues … Continue reading Weeknote: 21 to 25 March 2022
A different week this week, as I took 4 days off, before spending Friday visiting the IC24 integrated urgent care contact centre on Friday. Breaknote On Tuesday and Wednesday, Caroline and I had a night away in the Midlands, visiting pottery museums arond Stoke and the National Trust's Wightwick Manor. The picture above shows just … Continue reading Weeknote: 14 to 18 March 2022
What did I enjoy? Spending time away from the home office - not one, not two, but three different workplaces in one week. Monday at the Department of Health & Social Care in Victoria Street, London, for a first all-in-person Joint Digital Policy & Strategy senior leadership team, followed by a nice Italian dinner in … Continue reading Fortnightnote: 28 February to 11 March 2022
What did I enjoy? Wednesday in the Leeds office, which is becoming a regular habit. There weren't many of us in, but I did have a chance meeting with Jane, one of our small but brilliant commercial team, who I'd preciously only worked with via video calls. I was privileged to chair the Joint Digital … Continue reading Weeknote: 21 to 25 February 2022
If my reckoning is right, it's 25 years since I started my first job in digital, with PA New Media in Leeds. Please excuse the self-indulgent thread about the things I've seen in that quarter century. I've had ringside seats to watch two massive service sectors - first news media, then telecommunications - turned upside … Continue reading Quarter century
What did I enjoy? A couple of sessions with digital urgent & emergency care (UEC) colleagues on our strategy and programme benefits. Having a sharper focus on realising actual outcomes from our work has been one of my top two mantras ever since I took on this role last year. (The other is the need … Continue reading Weeknote: 14 to 18 February 2022
Matt Edgar writes here 