Tag: week three

Tech care of your health!

It’s no secret that the NHS has had a tricky past with technology. Just this year, we saw malicious software cripple 61 trusts across England and Scotland! However, the demands of an ageing population and the shift in the supply of healthcare professionals has meant that tech-enabled care is needed quickly to alleviate pressure from the bed blocking phenomenon.

As part of the devolution of health and social care in Greater Manchester, a Bolton locality plan set out how healthcare services would change over the next five years. This plan looks to introduce technology such as a push button, or fall sensors and alarm pendants worn around the neck, that can allow patients to safely go back to their own homes, rather than staying in hospital longer than necessary.

A Tuesday evening meeting with the Bolton Borough Youth Council reminded me of my fond memories as a Youth Councillor. I used the session to gather young people’s voice on current service issues as well as to introduce aspects of the locality plan. Within the last two years, since I was kicked out of the youth council for being too old, a lot has changed. The new group had managed to take on, even more, projects and even acquired a new fancier place of meeting. I wish I was two years younger! Seeing the continuous change in the social and cultural habits of the younger millennials, I finished up my time-slot by discussing how the Youth Council could actively work with HealthWatch to support their health research work. This is something that I will be following up with in due course.

To ascertain feedback, so that the locality plan could be adjusted to make the towns healthcare services fit for the future, HealthWatch helped run a community roadshow in the centre of Bolton. In a large white tent, you could find a team of eager HealthWatch researchers looking to learn your opinions on the £28.8 million plan for Bolton’s health and social services.

Naturally, I played the role of Dr Patel giving shoppers the chance to experience a simulation of video-call GP appointments. To ensure that this was nothing more than a simulation, I wrote up fixed scenarios that could be acted out by the willing patient. To my surprise, the majority people thought positively about this issue and not one person mentioned the need for additional safeguarding. Whilst I was off-duty, I supported the work of my colleagues by collecting people’s opinions on wearable and home monitoring technology. Undeterred by unpolished Gujarati and Hindi language skills, I managed to discuss concerns that some of the elderly minority population had.

In this third week at HealthWatch Bolton, I’ve sadly had little time to work with the BRASS (Befriending Refugees and Asylum Seekers) Centre. Instead, I visited the Victoria Hall Refugee and Asylum Seeker meeting place to collect more data. I got the scary feeling that for some people; I was the first friendly face, with which they felt comfortable enough to talk through their problems with, that they had come across since their resettlement.

When you get the timing just right….

I picked the best month to do my internship at Anthony Nolan. (A charity that saves the lives of people with blood cancer or blood disorders). I have now started my third week and last Friday was the annual staff picnic. This is a day where the whole charity comes together (minus vital staff required to keep the charity running) to look at what has been happening over the past year and what the goals are for the coming one. This lead to a gathering of around 300 people in the great hall of London Metropolitan University.

The morning started off with a speech from the CEO. She was very uplifting about what has been achieved over the last year, such as the charity being in the Sunday Times Top 100 not-for-profits to work for and achieving a one-star accreditation in the Sunday Times Best Companies annual ranking. She also was very positive with the goals for the future, ultimately a three-star accreditation and a higher rank.

In the course of the morning there was also a speech from a transplant recipient. Her story really brought home the reason why what Anthony Nolan does is so amazing. Without the bone marrow register she would not have been up there giving that speech.

There was also a Q&A with the Senior management team with questions that ranged from the light-hearted ‘What did you want to be when you grew up?’ to ‘How is Brexit going to impact the company?’. Then there was a chance for all of the different departments to showcase what it is that they do. Most used comedic videos to achieve this, such as filming from a camera strapped to the back of a dog and making it into a silent film. This was great and it showed me that despite the serious work that they do they sure know how to have fun.

After all this was done everybody migrated to Hampstead Heath to have a picnic. Despite having to queue for 20 minutes to get my sandwiches this was a great opportunity to get to know my co-workers a little better and was a very enjoyable experience. If you are reading this blog because you are thinking of doing charity insights I cannot recommend highly enough taking opportunities to socialise as knowing your colleagues makes the whole experience more enjoyable and far less scary.
Hampstead Heath 2

CABI – Week 3

Well week 3 went by fast! Some of the highlights from the week:

  • Presented to some interested CABI staff the preliminary results from our coffee risk modelling endeavours and discussed how to use stochastic methods in Excel.
  • A conference call to a colleague in Germany at HRNS to check in and plan the next steps for where to focus effort
  • Said goodbye to my office mate who is off to Vanautu to teach a farming training course with cocoa producers. 
  • Said goodbye to my supervisor for the week as he was off to Germany and then Colombia for coffee meetings.

People do such an interesting variety of work at CABI and I’ve really enjoyed my time in the office (though I have to say, I think I’d rather be in Vanautu when I look outside 😉 ). I can’t believe there is only this week left. I’ll likely continue on with the modelling and see what we can come up with. This week started with another conference call to Germany and discussion around potentially testing the tool with extension workers in Guatemala. There is a lot of work to do before then and increasingly I feel like I am really pushing myself to the limit of my knowledge. It’s an exciting combination of frustration and little breakthroughs. Time to get back to it!

 

Cheers,

Lee