March was a busy month on the health tech conference scene. Don Tomlinson and Lorna Kinsey report back on the three key events.
HETT NORTH
First off the ranks was HETT (Healthcare Excellence Through Technology) which came north to Manchester for the first time. The one-day event was an opportunity to ‘test the water’ and see if the event – which is usually held in London’s Docklands – could also run effectively in Manchester in 2024.
Sam, Lorna, Don, Gary and Jo from the max20 team
max20 Project Solutions was invited as guest visitor to the event, which was held in one of the smaller Manchester Central halls. We’re already booked as an exhibitor for HETT at Docklands on 26-27 September 2023.
These events have a common theme – an exhibition area and surrounding rooms, large and small, for guest speakers and presentations. The exhibition area was not that inspiring – no big names but lots of start-ups which was good to see and there was an interesting ‘virtual hospital’ from Sweden.
The main draw were the speakers and presentations with a strong representation from NHS England and also senior managers from North West NHS Trusts. Don was very encouraged to meet so many CCIOs (Chief Clinical Information Officers) and their enthusiasm for all things digital was infectious.
The main theme for the day was the frontline digitisation initiative across the whole of NHS England with ‘Overcoming Challenges to Work Towards a Mature Model in EPR’ the stand-out presentation.
Overall, it was a very worthwhile visit, and we understand there will be a full two-day exhibition and conference in March 2024 at Manchester Central – which we look forward to.
DIGITAL HEALTH REWIRED
Rewired 2023 returned to the Business Design Centre, London with a festival designed to support the digital future. The Integrated Care Stage was of key interest to us – throughout the two days we were able to hear from CIO’s/CDIO’s who were looking to work together across both community and acute settings to achieve a better health environment for their patients.
The ability to attract and retain local staff remains high on the list of priorities for all these Trusts as they move forwards under the recently established Integrated Care Boards.
Attending as delegates rather than exhibitors, we were able to stop by many of the presentations to learn more about the challenges facing our NHS. It was good to meet up with many of our existing NHS clients as well as meet new ones and we’ll definitely be attending again next year.
NHS CONNECT
We hear a lot in the news about the need to recruit more doctors and nurses, but the challenge of attracting IT and digital staff to the NHS is largely unreported.
Digital skills shortages was the theme of this year’s Connect, the annual conference run by the NHS North West Skills Development Network and focusing on non-medical staff including IT. max20 has supported Connect for over 15 years and the 2023 event was, in our view, the best to date.
The event, held at Blackpool’s Grand Hotel, attracted around 300 attendees. For the first time NHS managers from other regions were invited and it was also good to see five of the main electronic patient record (EPR) tech companies had a presence in the exhibition.
The shortage of digital talent is particularly painful at a time when digital transformation is a central part of NHS strategy. One factor that has exacerbated the shortage was the changes in 2017. Effectively this banned the use of contractors and cut off the NHS from a large part of its digital workforce – in particular the more experienced consultants who want to retain their autonomy and would not consider a job ‘in house’.
Unlike these, many of the more junior IT professionals do appreciate the benefits of a monthly pay. When we start a new project, we try to recruit local people for junior support roles. For many, it is their first experience in the NHS and once the project is complete, they will often go on to apply for a permanent NHS role.