Working Together To Improve Health and Social Care in Leeds
Introductions...
Whenever I introduce myself and team during meetings it can often be tricky to outline the background, explain exactly where we sit and what our remit covers. There can be assumptions that we work for the organisation which hosts us (Leeds City Council), and I’m hoping this blog post will help to explain some of the wider context.
I am part of the Leeds City Digital Partnerships Team, a small team of IT professionals which has an extensive remit around anything that relates to integrated care in Leeds which is delivered digitally. Basically, if there’s a positive health outcome in joining things up locally, we want to know about it and see where we can help!
We are hosted by Leeds City Council’s Digital Information Service (DIS) and work across the Leeds City Partnership which includes the Council, Leeds CCG and Primary Care, Leeds Community Healthcare, Leeds Teaching Hospital, and Leeds & York Partnership Foundation Trust. These organisations have all agreed to work collaboratively when it comes to IT, digital and many other services, for the benefit of the people of Leeds.
Connecting the Dots....
Our work ranges from shared care records, apps and infrastructure through to commissioning and creating digital solutions to fit clinical and business needs. As Head of Strategy & Solutions, it’s my role to provide leadership and strategy around how we do this; working with our various city stakeholders to help Leeds become the best city for health and wellbeing. For more info, we have documented our city digital ‘commitments'.
Our work is directed by our Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) Dr Alistair Walling, our Programme Director Alastair Cartwright, and the Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) for Leeds CCG & Leeds City Council, Leonardo Tantari.
Joining Things Up Across the City
Our citywide work and digital principles are also embedded with a number of linked initiatives which help to deliver these goals. To name just a few:
The Leeds Care Record, securely combining data from multiple organisations and presenting a shared care record for clinicians and healthcare professionals
Smart Leeds, delivering the vision and platform for Leeds to become a truly smart city
And the amazing 100% Digital Leeds programme, providing support and guidance to help people get online and making Leeds the most digitally inclusive city for everyone.
The Year Ahead...
2020 was undoubtedly the toughest year many of us have faced, not only for the public sector in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, but for everyone in all walks of life. The response to the pandemic highlights the huge advantages of organisations working together and sharing data at a city level, but also the various challenges in doing so – we have so much more to do in this space.
We are in the process of building up some information on our ongoing initiatives (it’s still a work in progress).
There are plenty of projects ‘in flight’ at the moment. To name just a few;
primary to secondary care advice and guidance
digital support for care homes
developing open online platforms for easier sharing of information
developing standards for shared buildings used by local government and NHS
Testing future housing solutions to help people monitor their own health, and the health of the property in which they live
And for good measure... some data centre migrations chucked in there as well!
And... breathe!
So lots to look forward to, which I’m sure will have a great impact on our city partners and more importantly, the people we serve.
Thanks for reading and I really do hope this post finds you well in these trying times.
Rob