Week 27: Request for change
This week I discovered that our use of ‘RFC’ internally means ‘request for change’ and not, as I’ve assumed for months, request for comments. It’s used as part of our release process, which I still don’t fully understand.
I’ve done lots of context switching this week, jumping from planning upcoming research trips, to trying to learn how to use Adobe Analytics, to refining accessibility issues in our backlog, to reviewing date inputs and formatting in the service.
There have also been some good background discussions thinking about ways in which service design across team and organisational boundaries could be improved. Always a tricky one.
Ping and book
One of the other teams in prevention services had a news story about their work released: NHS ‘ping and book’ screening to help save thousands of women’s lives.
This doesn’t directly affect vaccinations, but given that we also use notifications, emails, texts and letters to tell people about booking their vaccination, I’ll be interested to see the research findings from their pilot scheme.
Decentralisation vs digitation
The Health Secretary gave a speech this week about reform of the NHS.
One the recurring themes in it moving power from the centre to the local, with local commissioning led by integrated care boards. However another of the big shifts is digitisation.
Decentralisation and digitisation don’t necessarily conflict with each other, but there is a potential tension there that’s worth acknowledging.
Flu vaccine eligibility checker
PatientAccess, a patient-facing interface to the EMIS system that many GPs including mine use, sent me an email this week to their NHS flu vaccine eligibility checker. Oddly, it doesn’t use any of the data it already knows about me, such as my age.
It‘s interesting to see how this compares to the content on NHS’s own Flu vaccine page.
Unlike the NHS website, PatientAccess will offer to help you book a private flu vaccination if you’re not eligible for the free one.
Links
- Analogue because of digital by Ben Holliday discusses whether pharmacies can send flu vaccination records to GPs – I think the issue here is paid-for vs NHS-funded vaccinations
- Birth defects prevented by fortifying flour with folic acid from Department of Health and Social Care
- NHS delivery drones take flight offering faster and greener patient care from NHS Guy’s & St Thomas’
Next week should involve some research day trips to seaside towns. Expect photos.