It wasn’t a question that anyone expected to hear from Doctor Paul Jones, Chief Digital Information Officer for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, when he took to the stage during the Silicon Yorkshire Expo.
However, it proved to be a relevant one: “What does Adam Ant the Dandy Highwayman, the Spice Girls and Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust have in common?”
The answer was that in 1981, the same year as Adam Ant the Dandy Highwayman was in the charts, the telephone systems were put in place at the Trust; and in 1996, the same year the Spice Girls were hitting the headlines, most of the networks were installed!
Working for one of the largest teaching hospitals in the UK
Taking the opportunity to provide the audience with some context about what he was faced with when he was introduced to his role, he comments: “First and foremost, I am incredibly proud to work for Leeds Teaching Hospital. It is one of the largest teaching hospitals in the UK and Europe and today marks ten years of it being a major trauma centre.
“What people don’t realise is that of the 2,000 beds, only about 200 are set aside for elective procedures, which leaves 1,800 assigned for emergency care, or rather, people that we didn’t know where coming!”
Taking legacy systems and investing for the future
It’s clear that the remit that Paul has is vast. He explains that when he first arrived at the Trust he was faced with legacy systems and the need to get the foundations right before considering any innovation or ‘exciting’ updates.
He comments: “When I arrived there was a real disconnect between what was pushed and what was delivered. I decided the only way to tackle the challenge was to implement the Jones’ hierarchy of needs. I needed to make sure that people could trust the IT that was in place and that meant starting from the bottom and working up.
“Put simply, if I didn’t spend time on the foundations, I would be wasting time on anything else. So, we invested in telephony, a new data platform, new technology systems, data centres and supporting access to electronic records.
“We got the basics right before considering the projects that people may have felt were more exciting.”
Finding what matters most
Despite working in healthcare, Paul explains that what he cares about in his role is very similar to what other CIO’s are also passionate about.
He adds: “What I care about is networks, servers and devices. The main applications that run the hospital. In addition, there is the Patient Pathway Manager (PPM), which was developed within the Trust, and then there is the data, reporting, cyber security and governance to consider too.”
Today, Leeds is the National Pathology Imaging Centre. It promotes a new standard of care through virtual treatment pathways (VTPs), which give patients the opportunity to manage their conditions remotely with access to information and advice.
Paul comments: “Like all businesses, we need to make sure we have the technology in place that will allow us to function to the best of our ability. There were legacy stacks and systems in place that we were relying on when I came here.
“Still, despite this, we are investing, and we are leading both in the UK and across Europe. There is still lots to do but we are moving forward and planning to do more and more to improve the services for staff and outcomes for patients.”
Saving Lives in Leeds
Leeds Teaching Hospital features on a BBC 2 documentary series, Saving Lives in Leeds. In each of the eight episodes, the Trust shares the life changing and lifesaving services it provides to patients every day.
Thanks to Paul for taking the time to share his experiences with the audience during the Silicon Yorkshire Expo. It was certainly an eye-opening, informative and interesting insight into the IT services that support The Leeds Teaching NHS Trust.
