In April 2019, Kettering General Hospital (KGH) commenced on an ambitious journey to be the most digital hospital in England by July 2023. One component of this journey is the aim to decommission all on-site data centres, and move to the cloud, particularly in the light of our forthcoming rebuild as part of the HIP2 programme in the next 3–5 years. Achieving this move is a multi-year project, so putting steps in place to achieve this now is critical.
As we begin to formulate the cloud-first policy/strategy for KGH, I wanted to see what others in the NHS were doing…
TL;DR: Down memory lane and dabbling with Monte Carlo Analysis. Preparing the Health Intelligence firebreak proposal. Exec Away Days.
[week ending 17/09/2021]
Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? I joined the Midlands Digital Health Skills Development Network steering group meeting. The work of the network is starting to shape and we discussed the task and finish groups to be set up and the potential special interest groups we may wish to sponsor. …
TL;DR: Planning a firebreak. Using Make Time techniques to crack a 6 month old egg.
[week ending 10/09/2021]
Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? I spoke to Andrew from University of Leicester about our organisations working closer together.
With Dan (NGH Digital Director), I interviewed a couple of people for the interim Group Head of Health Intelligence role.
I had a great conversation with Shauna McMahon, CIO at Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS FT. …
TL;DR: Very little in my life apart from Winter Modelling.
[week ending 03/09/2021]
Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? I had a chat with Jon from the University of Northampton to talk about opportunities for us as a large employer in the area to work more closely together — including student placements and contributing to the curriculum in some way. Plenty of scope to do some interesting stuff that should benefit our organisations and the students. …
TL;DR: Modelling bed demand for Winter. Trying to use Make Time techniques. More collarbone woes.
[week ending 28/08/2021]
Back from holiday/helping on scout camp and back to 100mph.
Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? First chat with Adam from NELCSU who represents the Northants GPs regarding IG. He’s joined the System IG group that we had later in the week, so it was good to have a chat about the scope of his role ahead of that.
Chat with Indi Singh about Provider Collaboratives and time management techniques. Lots to follow up about Provider Collaboratives to learn…
TL;DR: Saying goodbye to some Digital Legends. Challenging the Board on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion actions.
[week ending 30/07/2021]
Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? Colleagues from the Midlands CIO Digital Data and Technology group.
I had a good chat with Mike Cavaye from SABP about the Digital Health Skills Development Network. Mike is trying to establish a development network in his area and we exchanged thoughts. I’ve interacted with Mike quite a few times over Twitter and he kindly shared his service overview powerpoint with me a few weeks ago, but this was the first time…
TL;DR: Enhancing Outpatient Waiting Lists. Discussion of ‘White Fragility’. Two phrases not making it onto buzzword bingo.
[week ending 24/07/2021]
Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? Good workshop with System C about KGH’s use of the outpatient waiting list functionality. Great to hear the team using this software talk enthusiastically about the things they’d learnt. Amanda did use the phrase “Attention-span of a carrot” which is the best phrase I’ve heard in a meeting so far this year. The second best phrase this year was in a blog article I also read this week (“bell-ringing mouth breather”!!)…
TL;DR: Bone frustration. Digital Health Summer School panel. Impact of football racism.
[week ending 16/07/2021]
Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? Had a demo of the Qualtrics platform, with a view of using the in staff pulse surveys and beyond. When they finally got to Show The Thing I thought it was pretty decent.
On the back of a Midlands CIOs call last week where there was some debate about which components could be provided nationally in which should remain in control locally, I talked to Dave Turner’s (NHSX CTO) team about a few idea. Ever since…
TL;DR: If anyone needs a spaghetti and marshmallow tower, just shout. Packed Group Digital Hospital Committee meeting.
[week ending 09/07/2021]
Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? Ian and I had a call with Alan from Oxleas Trust to discuss what has now become known as “Bed Tetris” (due to my Tweet earlier this year). Alan has done some impressive work to provide real-time views of the status of each bed in the Trust, which was interesting, but not quite what we’re looking to do. …
I’ve been doing this every 6 month reflective exercise for a while now¹. I’ve decided to shift my timescales a bit to align with the end of my first 6 months as Group Chief Information Officer at the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (Northampton and Kettering Hospital Group). As a result, there’s not complete continuity from my KGH 18 month reflections.
I use my weeknotes as a regular reflective discipline. However, this is an opportunity to take a longer look back.
What has gone well?
