Two Warwickshire mansions: the time capsule and the gallery

Charlecote Park and Compton Verney were both built as grand private houses, occupied by their founding families until the 20th century. They are now both open to the public, but offer contrasting visions of Britain.

Originally published on Beacon.

Continue reading “Two Warwickshire mansions: the time capsule and the gallery”

Opening up on Beacon

After a year of writing every week on Beacon, with the articles behind a subscription paywall, in 2015 I plan to publish longer articles every month. I will also open up what I write on Beacon, so everyone can see it. (This has already been the case if you have followed a tweeted link to an article.)

I have also opened access to some of my favourite articles from 2014 on Beacon, listed below. Hope you enjoy them. Continue reading “Opening up on Beacon”

NHS Wales interview, Cardiff’s Senedd and Devo-City on Kindle

On Wednesday, Guardian Healthcare Professionals Network published my interview with Dr Andrew Goodall, chief executive of NHS Wales. He discussed having a bit more money, pay restraint (which will continue despite the bit more money) and how to get people to understand and agree to reconfigurations of services.

He also said it is easier to make things happen in Wales:

We’re able to bring people in a room, and understand their own views on how they want to develop good services… People can talk about what they want to change in Wales, and we’re able to do something about that.

Continue reading “NHS Wales interview, Cardiff’s Senedd and Devo-City on Kindle”

Cambridge University Hospitals’ Epic £200m IT project

ComputerWeekly.com has published an article by me on Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s £200m installation of software from Epic and hardware and networking kit from HP. I reckon I’m safe describing it as one of the biggest IT projects ever undertaken by a single NHS trust.

A huge amount of work went into deciding how much to alter processes and how much to alter software. As chief clinical information officer Dr Afzal Chaudhry told me: “It wasn’t a question of fitting our hospital to the system, but fitting the system and the workflows to care for our patients.” Continue reading “Cambridge University Hospitals’ Epic £200m IT project”