How the role of data has changed during my 20 years in the NHS

Photo of Matthew Carpenter

Matthew Carpenter looks back at his career in healthcare

We take it for granted today in some parts of the NHS that clinicians can see medical histories in a couple of clicks of a mouse. My first ever healthcare job in 2005 was physically locating paper records at Pennine Acute (now NCA) when requests had been logged or phone calls received by the Record Request Desk.

I worked there part-time while doing my A-levels and was grateful that Oldham had a purpose-built medical records department, as other sites such as North Manchester were located in several buildings, so locating a record could be a time-consuming, exhausting exercise. The process of logging a request, finding and delivering paper records could mean waiting hours for basic patient information, and if a record couldn’t be located, procedures were likely to be cancelled, and care would be delayed.

First experience of digital and data

It was at Pennine Acute that I was introduced to the world of electronic patient records. A huge record digitisation project launched in 2012 that gave me to the opportunity to move from part-time student to managing 50 staff to scan records from 2014-2016. We transferred hundreds of thousands of patient medical records from paper to the electronic system, which meant quicker and more efficient access for clinicians. My experience at Pennine Acute lasted over 10 years where I had the opportunity to explore other areas of healthcare such as urology and cancer clinics which gave me a much better-rounded view of how data and digital helps specific teams.

After a stint as a Breach Co-Ordinator at A&E in Oldham in 2015. I moved to GMMH in 2016 working in the IT Systems, Data Quality and Project Management teams, ensuring the data quality in the newly implemented clinical system, Paris, was up to standard. It was great to see the positive impact that good quality data had for clinicians and patients. All the clinical lists were on the system which simplified processes for clinicians and patients benefitted from having all their mental health notes in one place.

From joining up data to optimising data feeds

I joined the Insight & Analysis team at Health Innovation Manchester in 2022 when the team was very new. The GM Care Record was live but there was hardly any data to analyse. My role as Data Improvement Manager has grown hugely over the last three years – creating reports and visualisations to help clinicians as well as highlighting and addressing any problems within the system.

86% of data feeds from all health and social care organisations in Greater Manchester, now flow into the GM Care Record which means the platform is a much richer source of patient information than it was a year ago, and we move closer to 100% this year.

I’m proud to be working on the optimisation of the GM Care Record data feeds to ensure every clinician has access to accurate, comprehensive information at each stage in a patient’s journey so patients don’t have to retell their story, and clinicians can easily access the full picture of care.

Sometimes it can feel like the NHS is slow to digitise, but when I reflect on my first job in the NHS running around finding paper records, compared with managing the quality of these powerful data assets that have the power to improve lives and reduce health inequalities in Greater Manchester, I’m astonished how far we’ve come and grateful to be a part of it.

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