NHS England's chief digital officer goes full digital, ditches health service for GP app biz NHS England's chief digital officer has reportedly told staff she is leaving the organisation just days after the government launched its tech-focused long-term plan for the body. annoyed doctor tired at computer NHS England claims it will be all-digital within the decade READ MORE Juliet Bauer will join Livi, a GP video biz …
Sounds the type that uses acronymns constantly and (exciting) terms like "Pink Cloud" (yes, it's genuine and nonsense). That's when I feel like I've been doing the IT implementation drudge for far too long, bailing these type of people out, when the shit hits the fan, as it invitably does after vast budgets have been spent, as they move onto the next new - big shiney.
Technology for the NHS doesn't need to be 'exciting', it needs to be boring, robust, have longevity (at least 10 years) with the minimum amount of steps to get hold of the data you need to treat the patient, importantly timely and failsafe.
The biggest thing really should be nailing down the contracts on the equipment firmware/software (preferably opensource), how that equipment will be maintained. There is so little due diligence in this area.
Simplicity is key (don't worry it'll get complicated from use, so start of simple), anything that adds multiple layers of complications or 'quirks', is going to cost you dear, as everything slowly turns into a can of worms to maintain over time anyway.
On that note I'll add:
Rolling out Windows 10 in the NHS, is the biggest 'wrong decision' the NHS has ever made.
I find this sort of thing disturbing. These are people in privileged positions and she's been hired 100% to leverage her existing NHS contacts and relationships whilst pushing privatisation in on a profit making agenda.
I'm just glad I don't work in NHSEngland, it's at the forefront of selling off NHS services.
She's not talking about a move away from clinician led leadership, but a move away from clinician led care altogether. "Partnership approaches" is code for "privatising your healthcare provider" and "encouraging personal responsibility" is dog whistle for "cutting essential services".
For the NHS to work effectively it can't be "just" free at the point of care. It must be a publicly owned body operated purely for the public good. These kind of views are how you go about parceling up the valuable bits, selling them off to your new mates from Sweden and then leaving the rest to crumble and die.
"We need to move away from the paternalistic, clinician-led culture, to using a targeted mix of partnership approaches and encouraging personal responsibility for health where appropriate."
What exactly is wrong with a 'clinician-led culture' in healthcare? Call me old-fashioned, but when I need healthcare, I think I'll take the advice of a doctor over a beancounter any day of the week.
It is currently politically impossible to reduce how management lead the NHS is. Reducing the number of managers would be seen as NHS cuts and would look bad during this fake 'staff shortage' that the NHS is apparently suffering from.
The managers knew what they were doing when they engineered this situation, when it came time to reducing NHS spending they made sure that all the cuts came from front line services and medical staff, that way the impact of the patients is maximize and it puts maximum pressure on the government to stop cuts and increase spending.
No citizen you misunderstand, it will all become clear when you get your government issued device that allows you access to healthcare professionals on the go and all other aspects of government.
Who needs ID cards? Doesn't matter if it's done in an app the results will be the same.
Welcome to the digital future.
"has overseen work on the NHS 111 online service"
I tried that last week.
It was along the lines of "Do you have symptom A, symptom B or symptom C.
OK, A and B.
Oh, it works on radio buttons and can only accept one option.
Have they never heard of check boxes or haven't they got rules (or maybe a rules engine) that works on two?
It finally dropped through to "Gall your GP" which is what I'd have done without its "help".
Problem: many people don't like taking the afternoon off work to attend a 5 minute GP appointment. many appointments are simply catch ups or prescription renewal that can be done over Skype, clearly not all.
Additionally, many people don't attend their appointments, a particular problem with less than 3 GPs in house.
Convenient access to NHS services via app can be great for some patients, having pools of hundreds of available GPs helps balance workload, and may even be immediately available. You also wouldn't need to leave the house to get a repeat prescription
Some doctors will hate this, as it will be in direct competition with their multi million pound clinics, and may even lower the barrier for specialist sexual health nurses to take over swathes of work that a Dr could make an easy living out of
"many appointments are ... prescription renewal that can be done over Skype, clearly not all."
Skype just to renew a prescription? Why?
This is a prime example of the "must use an app" mentality. These have been done by old-fashioned phone to a receptionist for years or, if you really want to go digital, by filling in a request on the web-site. It's possible, however, that periodically the doctor might wish to review by seeing and examining the patient rather than blindly renewing a dosage for years.
It all allows the public to see how with-it Matt Hancock et al are, that they're up with all the cool stuff to fix problems.
The annoying thing with all of this is that the NHS has no idea about basic processes. No organisation of that scale gives you only a call option. If I want to book physio at Nuffield, it's via the web. Log in, select service, book. I don't believe prescriptions need me calling Norah on reception who then spends time dealing with it to pass to a doctor and get printed. I'm sure this could be me clicking a button and a GP going down a list and confirming yes or that they need to talk to a patient first. Then I get my prescription sent, with a barcode, to my phone. The barcode is then verified at the pharmacy when scanned.
I mean, National Express manage this. Cineworld manage this. It can't be that challenging.
app's are just a waste of time if your providing a free service
they are only useful if your charging someone....
but what about video conferencing ? have you ever heard of WebRTC... these people have not a clue about how to deliver digital services.
if the NHS or GP's published a web site with video embedded they could bundle it in a app container for those that...
just look at rocketchat they have all the regulations etc...
A quick browse of Bauer's LinkedIn profile (yes, I took one for the team), reveals her first healthcare-based job was November 2016 (and that was as a patient governor).
Before that she'd had a range of short-lived jobs, mainly in marketing.
How do these people always end up with the plum jobs?
Oh, she went to Marlborough College (that's one of the top private schools in the country that will admit girls).
So basically, she's another Dido Harding.
Set the NHS on some vaguely defined "digital first" path, preferring app baed consultation to gp visits, then shift off to a senior role in a company providing such apps on a ginormous salary. Company mysteriously awarded govt contract worth millions. Rewards for innovation and hard work indeed..
I think *all* staff who want to work in the NHS should have to serve a mandatory period working in front-line services first to orientate them to what a patient actually is and what the NHS is intended-for.
I've done it but the vast of majority of my colleagues have no clue about patients, referring to them as "citizens" instead.
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