Good to Great

I’ve just been reading Andy Burnham’s NHS 2010-2015 - from good to great. He tells us the NHS is in a strong position, with high levels of public support. He paints a picture of an organisation with strengths, that can get even better.

He reminds me that we approach a new decade, and encourages us to set new ambitions - to be more preventative, more people centred, more productive.

We’re just leaving the noughties (or whatever you have been calling them) and it doesn’t seem possible that it is really ten years since we all held our breath to see if computer systems would crash as the year clicked over into 2000. Of course, nothing happened at all and all the computers coped without a glitch. When I visited my GP recently, the prescription was printed in the blink of an eye, my records on screen with everything about me stored efficiently.  How on earth did they cope with all those little brown folders stuffed with our medical histories?  

Whether we like it or not, the age of the computer is with us, and more and more we will need to be able to negotiate the NHS systems through computers.  Our Trust has been using a telephone based coaching organisation - booking a coaching session couldn’t be easier.  Logging onto their web system, you can see at a glance what time slots are available, and book with the click of a mouse.  A neat text reminder comes to your mobile 10 minutes before your booked time, and an email reminder, too, just in case.  How long before we can book an appointment with our GP like this?

Think how much time it would save - no need to sit for hours re-dialling to try and get through to appointments!  

Someone will no doubt tell me their GP already does this - and if that’s the case, great!  

The next few years will be a challenge, that’s for sure - but as Abraham Lincoln said, the best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time….

Happy new year!