Welcome to Made Tech Insiders, where we interview the talented individuals shaping our organisation. We’ll explore career journeys, project highlights, and future tech trends, showcasing what makes Made Tech an exceptional place to work and innovate.
Paul O’Looney, a respected expert in delivering digital health and care services, shares his thoughts on some of the tough challenges that the sector is still facing, and explores some of the obstacles the new government will face if it is to be successful in resolving them.
Q: What attracted you to the health and care sector?
I began working in the health and care sector in Leeds 20 years ago with the hope of changing the world for the better. I’d previously worked largely in the financial services sector, but the launch of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) for the NHS was the holy grail so many of us wanted to work on.
The most rewarding aspect of this work was knowing that the solutions I worked on directly improved the efficiency of healthcare services and would ultimately help to make patients’ experiences better with improved outcomes. The complexity and scale of the challenges in the sector was crying out for innovative digital solutions, and the opportunity to be part of these transformative initiatives was wondrous.
Many of the digital challenges I worked on all those years ago are still with us today, but I am still determined to find a way for us to resolve them. l feel we have “unfinished business”.
That’s what keeps me motivated, and gets me out of bed in the morning, and it’s what made me join Made Tech a few months ago, so that I can continue to make a difference.
Q: What are some of the key questions the new health secretary should be asking?
Why is there still so much paper?
Despite a considerable amount of investment, many healthcare departments still rely on outdated systems and processes that get in the way of efficiency. You don’t have to wait long before you see someone writing down some information, another person typing it into a system, and then the information gets faxed and retyped elsewhere. Everywhere you look there are whiteboards for triaging, old-fashioned SMS bleepers, and an overwhelming amount of paper, highlighting just how far behind healthcare is in terms of digital processes. I came across a recent survey that found that more than 42% of NHS processes are still paper-bound.
Why isn’t data quality improving more quickly?
One example which really shows the scale of the problem are ‘ghost records’. There are 5.8 million extra patient records than people in the UK due to multiple records across different systems. Fragmented data sources, poor data management and inconsistent data quality, get in the way of implementing new digital technologies, especially AI tools. All too often I’ve found that tight budgets prevent the purchase of tech that could help manage this data.
Why are we still reinventing the wheel?
The lack of standardised processes in the NHS is stark. Each hospital trust insists on its own methods, resulting in 215 trusts managing processes 215 different ways, despite the core patient care processes being largely the same. I believe that this cultural resistance to a single, unified approach has blocked many efficiency and digital transformation initiatives in healthcare. The Integrated Care Boards are tasked with unifying the strategy at a regional level, but even regional synergy across a multitude of systems is a huge challenge.
Q: If you had to pick one thing to solve, what would be top of your list?
Digitising social care has become my new passion. This wasn’t really considered in the NPfIT days, and some would argue it hasn’t really been the focus of much NHS transformation.
My blog post just after the election on digital priorities for a national care service caused a lot of interest and debate – both online and as I chatted to people within the Leeds “health-tech” ecosystem.
Better social care is crucial for efficient healthcare delivery and as I mentioned in my blog, the new government’s commitment to a National Care Service with national care standards is great news. The top priority will be to tackle IT integration within the social care sector. Seamless communication and interoperability are the basic foundations for effective care delivery across different settings. Getting this right will transform the patient journey and fix some of the challenges that have been around for decades.
Q: How can health and care organisations speed up innovation and project delivery?
The pandemic showed us that the NHS can actually make changes very quickly in response to a significant challenge. However, we’re now seeing a slow and painful slide back into slower, bureaucratic processes post-pandemic. This is stopping innovation and progress.
We need to recapture some of that ‘blitz-spirit’ and keep the momentum going. To do that I think we need to:
- Encourage agile ways of working across the board – in all departments and at all levels.
- Promote a culture of empowerment and risk-taking among health and care leaders to speed up decision-making and the implementation of desperately needed solutions.
- Investigate and draw upon private sector ways of working to help bridge the gap between innovation and implementation.
- Share knowledge and collaborate with other government agencies (non-health related) and industries to enrich the sector’s approach to innovation and change management.
Partnerships are key
Partnerships are also essential in the health sector to speed up delivery and implementation. Working with vendors who are used to collaborating can lead to innovative solutions that individual companies might struggle to achieve on their own.
Made Tech has years of experience working in various consortiums, not only collaborating with large tier-one companies, but also similar-sized organisations, and smaller SMEs with niche skills. This collaborative approach allows us to form diverse teams that can either lead or support projects, offering flexibility that some of the big consultancies can’t provide.
Our ability to navigate complex negotiations with NHS foundation suppliers, along with our deep understanding of data security and clinical risk management, means that we develop and implement solutions that put the patient first.
If you’d like to find out more, take a look at our health services web pages or get in touch with our healthcare experts today.
About the Author
Paul O'Looney
Client Partner
Paul is a senior digital transformation leader with extensive public sector experience. Starting as a developer, he has worked in data architecture and solution and enterprise architecture. As a Client Partner he supports Healthcare and Life Sciences customers and is passionate about using technology for the collective good.
