Something to talk about: putting humanity and technology together in health and care.
Blog by Darren Kilroy, Medical Director – International, RLDatix
It was an immense pleasure, and fun too, to record a podcast at the NHS Confederation 2024 Expo in Manchester yesterday with good friends and colleagues Leigh Malyon and Liz Jones. There’s always the risk, in recording anything, that the balance between what you think will be of interest to others, and what actually is of interest, is out of kilter. Only the listener can judge. I hope people can take some time to let us know when it’s released onto the airwaves, because the topics we discussed are important ones, of that I am convinced. We discussed and debated that intermingling of language, acronyms, regulatory expectations and bureaucracy with the actual lived experience of being a healthcare professional in this incredibly technological environment of 2024.
Drawing heavily, but not exclusively, on the solutions offered to providers of health and care by RLDatix we looked at what makes for ‘good’ tech within a clinical workforce and some of the reasons why what seems to be an utterly logical rationale to embrace technology within a team can falter or fail if not properly understood and administered. Productivity in the provision of health is very topical within the NHS in England and, to be fair, keenly coveted worldwide if not described in the same way. In terms of staff, having a clear and consistent account of the available human resource to grapple with the care requirements of our population is, for very many clinical staff, best accommodated within job planning. Configuring the operational deployment of people relies upon rotas and rosters, exception reporting to capture and enable correction of deviations from plan, effective governance through policy compliance, and rigorous risk management systems to monitor and assure safety at all times. Those are just some of the elements helping any team to be productive. The technology solutions to support all of that are widely available and equally widely in play globally.
But that’s not enough. I mentioned falter and fail. And I also, very deliberately, referenced our podcast being one hosted by friends and colleagues. Because what really matters when it comes to us all working effectively and, yes, productively, is the humanity in technology. The conversations, discussions, disagreements even, that we have. Support and critique. Feedback; the ability to make a mistake and learn from it positively. Kindness and civility. An environment in which technology is used as a force for good, not blame. A culture in which we approach the work to be done in the recognition that we are all just human beings with problems, families, homes, holidays, lives outside of work that are very important to us. When we embrace technology in that context, befriending each other in the shared goal of trying to make a difference in whatever ways we can, then not only does the tech work better, we work better, and the patients get the care they need that bit faster, with safety assured and quality high.
The Expo is always an incredibly interesting and stimulating event to attend. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been there many times, in a range of roles. Catching up with people from all aspects of health and care, from primary care to mental health, ambulance to surgical, charities to regulators, educationalists to lawyers, who I have worked with over the years, is always the most rewarding bit of it. Finding out what folks are up to in their own worlds, the progress they’ve made, the challenges they’ve overcome, swapping anecdotes about how our kids who were toddlers seemingly yesterday are suddenly now at university, all of this is, to me, the essence of what it’s all really about. Because, as we hopefully gave a flavour of in our podcast, everyone there was a colleague. Technology -amazing, astounding technology – binds those colleagues together in the common goal of care. But what really makes all that come alive is when we go on the journey, whatever our roles, together, as friends.
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