Journalist, editor, analyst and trainer on computing, government, climate and data
I love Blackpool, mainly because of the rides, from sedate Blackpool trams to the rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, culminating in the enormous Big One. There is surely no finer Blackpool experience than plummeting towards the promenade at 87mph, as the sun shines on the sea. Continue reading “Blackpool trams are going places. Blackpool can too”
The health secretary believes technology can help change the health service. The NHS Confederation conference heard how a Bradford GP surgery is taking a lead
Reports on technology from NHS Confederation 2012, including health secretary Andrew Lansley and pioneering Bradford GP Dr Shahid Ali. I blogged about the conference less seriously here. Continue reading “Technology can transform the NHS – but not on its own”
Rather unfairly, on Friday lunchtime at last week’s NHS Confederation annual conference in a rainy Manchester, I tweeted David Williams of Health Service Journal to suggest that the only place #Confed2012 was trending on the personalised panels of people at Confed2012. [See footnote 1] Half the people in the press office had already seen the conference’s hashtag in the list and voiced the same assumption, before realising that Twitter shows a personalised trending list by default – the difference was that David had tweeted the first before getting to the second. Continue reading “#Confed2012 on Twitter: NHS Confederation’s Twixploitation of Twanter”
Both Britain’s Blackpool and the Netherlands’ Scheveningen are seaside resorts that, though they may have seen better days, are lots of fun. And they have a lot in common: trams, piers, cheap tat… but which is better?
Beaches: Blackpool has a great sandy beach, but it’s a bit hidden behind a big concrete sea wall (for understandable reasons involving winter storms and flooding). Scheveningen’s equally sandy beach is easily accessible, features posts with novelty logos and its beach cafes are really quite cool, even if high winds can end up dumping quite a lot of that beach in your drink.
Schev 1-0 BPL Continue reading “Blackpool vs Scheveningen: which is the better fun, if slightly faded, seaside resort?”
A hospital trust that became notorious for poor care is using its employees’ ideas to turn itself around
Mid Staffordshire NHS foundation trust has become notorious for failing to take care of its patients. This piece looks at some of the ways it has started to make improvements, although it has a long way to go.
Continue reading “How staff helped Mid Staffordshire make a clean start”
