What did I enjoy? I'm enjoying seeing the long-awaited work on urgent and emergency care (UEC) strategy coming together. It's taken a long time to get to this point, and I'm especially proud that my team's input is threaded through the whole document, not confined to the "digital enablers" section. Some work we were already … Continue reading Weeknote: 20 to 23 September 2022 →

I just returned to a half-finished note from the week before the August bank holiday and published that pretty much as I found it, leaving 3 more weeks to catch up on. The main reason for my weeknoting hiatus was that I've been busy every weekend - visiting in-laws in London, taking my son back … Continue reading Weeknotes triple edition: 30 August to 16 September 2022 →

Published belatedly having rested in my draft blog posts folder How did I make expectations clear? I led a drop-in call for people in the digital urgent and emergency care (UEC) teams that I'm bringing together ahead of the formal NHS England and NHS Digital merger. There’s a lot going on for these teams at … Continue reading Weeknote: 22 to 26 August 2022 →

What did I enjoy? As ever, meeting with ambulance digital leaders. Joining this group helps me understand what's important in the digital, data, and technology world for the regional services that our national NHS teams are here to support. On Tuesday, I chaired a steering group for the projects in our transformation programme. Colleagues gave … Continue reading Weeknote: 15 to 19 August 2022 →

Back to work after a week-long holiday in the south of France. We discovered some of the fascinating history of Avignon, and I made a small dent in my backlog of books on my e-reader. I especially enjoyed: James Bridle, 'Ways of Being: Beyond Human Intelligence' Gill Kernick, 'Catastrophe and Systemic Change: Learning from the … Continue reading Weeknote: 8 to 12 August 2022 →

I took a week's holiday last week, visiting Venice and surrounding towns. Quite a lot happened while I was away, and I am grateful to my deputy, Jacqui, and other colleagues who handled it all without drama. Getting off the plane at Manchester Airport, I was hit by an unexpected wall of warm air: the … Continue reading Weeknote: 18 to 22 July 2022 →

What did I enjoy? Meeting people, some face-to-face for the first time, out for drinks to mark an NHS England colleague's retirement. There's a close-knit team around urgent care in the NHS national organisations. They've worked together for many years, and supported each other through the toughest of times both professionally and personally, but they're … Continue reading Weeknote: 27 June to 1 July 2022 →

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 →

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 →

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 →