NHS SBS appoints new IT director
NHS Shared Business Service has appointed Scott Henderson (pictured) as IT director and a member of the executive management team, beginning his role on 1 June.
He has been tasked with delivering the IT strategy to underpin future financing, accounting, employment and procurement functions that NHS SBS, a joint venture between the Department of Health and Sopra Steria, handles for NHS organisations.
Henderson has previously held roles within NHS SBS as system implementation manager and head of finance and accounting technology. Before that he worked the finance sector, having held senior roles within Barclays Bank, Lloyds Banking Group and HBOS plc.
David Morris, NHS SBS managing director commented: “We’re looking forward to Scott joining us at a time when we are seeing more NHS organisations searching for ways to gain access to the best IT solutions that will help them make significant improvements in the quality of their back office processes and deliver cost savings that can free-up funds for frontline care.”
UNHCR uses Accenture biometrics for refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has contracted Accenture for the delivery of a biometric technology system for registering and verifying the identities of displaced persons.
Under the terms of the three-year contract, UNHCR will deploy the company’s Biometric Identity Management System, which uses the Unique Identity Service Platform, across its global operations. The software, which works in conjunction with UNHCR’s existing case management system, captures and stores fingerprints, iris data and facial images of individuals, providing those who are often undocumented with their only personal identity record.
Deployment has already begun at refugee camps in Thailand and Chad.
Brent extends contract with Capita
The London Borough of Brent has extended its contract with Capita for the provision of council tax and business rates administration for a further three years, in a partnership worth £8.3 million over the duration of the extension. Capita has now delivered services to Brent for more than 12 years.
Margaret Read, director of customer services at Brent Council, said: “This extension reflects our successful working relationship with Capita. We have developed a strong partnership over the last 12 years resulting in increased efficiencies and savings.
“At the same time we have seen increased revenue collection, helping to mitigate the very significant financial challenges that Brent faces over the next few years.”
Customer feedback for housing
Housing association Orbit Group has launched a real time customer feedback system, claimed to be the first for the housing sector, in a partnership with customer engagement specialists Rant & Rave.
The Rant & Rave system will ask customers for feedback via text message, voice message or email. This feedback is uploaded onto the Rant & Rave dashboard which members of staff can log into, enabling them to quickly see any negative comments they need to react to – and celebrate any great feedback for staff.
Louise Oakley, director of service excellence at Orbit Group, said: “As part of Orbit’s 2020 Vision of reaching 90% customer satisfaction and having 75% of customers accessing services online, this is an important step forward in making sure we are meeting customers’ needs. We want to be able to give our customers the best service possible and this new technology helps us do that.
“Before we launched Rant & Rave we had telephone surveys which gave us a snapshot of an individual’s opinion but it was very limited. With the introduction of Rant & Rave we can find out what our customers are thinking in real-time – we can easily pinpoint where we’re going right and wrong, and most importantly give people a voice and the chance to air their views as soon as they’ve finished on the phone.”
Microtech and Trustmarque form Scottish partnership
Microtech Support and Trustmarque Solutions have formed a partnership that they claim will give Scottish health boards quicker access to a broader range of IT services. They will offer their services under the NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Software and Services framework agreement.
Trustmarque provides software and IT services to NHS Health Boards in Scotland, while Microtech offers customised IT solutions such as installing applications, networking and security to a range of maintenance services throughout Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North of England.
NHS Lanarkshire has already taken services from the partnership, in the form of IT changes in advance of the go live of its e-casenote system acute hospitals.
King’s College Hospital uses Civica EDM
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Tust in London has implemented a digital care record system using Civica’s WinDIP electronic document management (EDM) software and a third party scanning solution.
Civica said this will allow clinicians to obtain patient information from a central location, support the integration of health and social care, provide savings of £700,000 over the next two years and aid the trust’s effort to become paperless by 2018.
King’s first move will be to bring the Princess Royal University Hospital in Bromley, for which it recently took responsibility, up to speed with the solution, then begin processing its old paper records through the WinDIP EDM. This will fully integrate with the trust’s electronic patient record, A&E Symphony and other key clinical systems.
The trust will also use Civica’s eForms and Workflow technology to input new data and trigger intelligent workflows, enabling clinicians to access patients’ historic medical records and treatment plans.
