Exploring the digital impact in Northern Ireland’s health and social care system
The
pandemic
accelerated
the
urgency
for
reform
in
health
and
social
care
around
the
world,
which
strained
resources
to
unprecedented
levels.
The
pandemic
accelerated
the
urgency
for
reform
in
health
and
social
care
around
the
world,
which
strained
resources
to
unprecedented
levels.
The
effects
are
still
being
felt
and
in
Northern
Ireland
specifically,
ongoing
political
instability
is
further
complicating
approaches
to
digital
transformation.
Although
progress
is
being
made
that
should
be
recognized
and
celebrated,
Dan
West,
CDIO
for
Health
and
Social
Care
in
Northern
Ireland’s
Department
of
Health,
understands
that
the
pandemic
still
casts
a
lingering
shadow
over
national
health
and
care
systems,
contributing
to
continuing
rampant
fatigue
among
staff
and
subsequent
strikes
over
pay.
“From
a
people
perspective,
things
are
pretty
strained
at
the
moment,”
he
says.
“All
of
the
capacity
and
operational
challenges
that
were
present
in
healthcare
prior
to
the
pandemic
are
magnified
now.
Waiting
lists
have
grown
and
diagnosis
and
treatments
have
been
delayed
or
missed
due
to
some
of
the
burden
the
pandemic
brought
on
the
system.
Plus,
the
absence
of
a
functioning
devolved
executive,
due
to
an
ongoing
dispute
by
the
DUP
over
the
Northern
Ireland
protocol,
adds
to
all
of
those
challenges.
It
all
reduces
the
ability
to
arrive
at
a
budget
settlement
that
shifts
resources
into
the
health
and
social
care
space.
So
you
can
see
how
my
job
has
had
to
react
to
all
of
those
stimulants.”
Leaders
in
the
public
sector
and
healthcare
might
worry
about
a
return
of
red
tape
that
could
slow
down
innovation,
too,
but
West
has
a
more
resilient
outlook
to
progress
by,
as
he
says,
never
wasting
a
crisis.
“We’ve
been
able
to
accelerate
the
things
we
knew
we
needed,
but
we
also
had
a
rate
of
adoption
of
collaboration
and
flexible
working
tools
that
we
wouldn’t
have
seen
in
peacetime,
if
you
like,”
he
says.
“I
was
doing
some
work
in
a
trust
in
the
English
NHS
and
we
gave
everybody
tools,
laptops
and
mobile
solutions,
and
redesigned
the
operating
model
and
how
we
worked
together.
There
was
resistance,
though,
where
people
felt
they
still
needed
an
office,
but
there
was
an
exponential
increase
in
the
use
of
virtual
tools
and
capabilities
to
how
we
interacted
with
each
other
as
professionals,
and
with
our
patients.
We
need
to
make
sure
that
how
we
deliver
digital
capability
to
our
staff,
and
how
we
do
digital
enablement
of
services
for
citizens,
is
not
allow
that
elasticity
in
bureaucracy
to
snap
us
back
to
traditional
ways
of
working.”
CIO
Leadership
Live’s
Drinkwater
recently
spoke
with
West
about
how
to
put
people
first
in
a
system
under
increasing
pressure
to
function
as
it
strives
to
digitally
transform
amid
a
backdrop
of
political
and
environmental
uncertainty.
Watch
the
full
video
below
for
more
insights.
On
balancing
efficiencies:
To
sustain
health
and
social
care
services
into
the
future,
we
need
to
find
a
way
to
get
more
output
from
the
same
or
maybe
even
reducing
resources.
And
I
don’t
think
anybody
would
suggest
that
digital
is
some
kind
of
panacea
to
all
of
this.
The
real
requirement
is
in
and
around
staff.
But
the
absence
of
the
money
to
hire
more
doctors
and
nurses,
the
lead
time,
and
then
training
them
to
bring
them
into
the
service
means
that
digital
has
to
be
part
of
the
jigsaw
puzzle
to
address
those
challenges.
The
projects
and
products
we
delivered
during
COVID-19
adopted
some
of
the
techniques
and
technologies
that
allowed
more
efficient
digitally
enabled
services.
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