A number of WhatsApp Groups and LinkedIn threads were created of the last week or so, which threw up a flurry of needs and offers. As this grew, there arose the need to capture and disseminate offers of support and help from across the sectors to help the NHS and healthcare organisations tackle the CV19 pandemic.
We appreciate that NHSX and NHSE are doing this at a national level and identifying need via their cells. However it has become clear that many colleagues felt there were also local needs to be meet – rapidly and with agility. And suppliers also need help from understanding the needs of health care organisations.
This community was set up with support from DIT and TechUk to enable that to happen, with an appropriate level of self organisation and collaboration.
It was also highlighted that beyond immediate offers of support and help, there are some great SMEs out there needing money to scale up fast in order to help with the impact of CV19 and keeping people safe at home! Where this is will be government funded, it will be led by NHSX.
Colleagues also wanted to support each other – as it is anticipated the ask will be big, and asked for the community to be a place where independent investors and deep tech SMEs could be brought together.
A place of collaboration was thus needed and this site was launched. The core group are all volunteers, who for personal reasons are able and willing to give their time independently to this.
We‘ve liaised with the DoT, NHSX and NHS Regional Directors of Digital to ensure that what we are doing as a community aligns to their activities. We have always, and will continue to adopt a principle of collaborative for the greater good, in line with need.
A LITTLE ABOUT THIS SITE!
You’ll see there are channels in the left hand panel.
* The #admin_notices_and_information channel which will have been your point of entry is where we will share site admin and organisation information, and will the location of site notices.
* The #chat_room is essentially the WhatApps equivalent
* The #things_to_think_about channel is where we discuss what we want from this community
* The #lastest_news channel is where we invite people to post COVID related announcements and news
In terms of collating information and facilitating collaboration, we have established seven themes. Five of them focus in the national strategy cells:
#1 Clinical and Pharmacy Digital Capabilities
#2 Digital Apps
#3 Digital capabilities for the Vulnerable, Isolated and Social Care
#4 Data
#5 Scaling-Up and offers of investment
And the other two we have been self generated as a community:
#6 Tech, Infrastructure
#7 Implementation
#8 Equipment
If you want to discuss or start a thread under a specific topic then click the relevant channels 1-8.
IF YOU’D LIKE TO SUBMIT A NEED OR AN OFFER
THERE IS A GOOGLE SHEET FOR EACH CHANNEL
– the access link is pinned to that specific channel.
Please add your input to the most appropriate channel sheet.
Please complete as much as you can of the columns in the sheets with information you are comfortable sharing. We are monitoring and refreshing the sheets daily. We’re sharing information collated in the sheets with colleagues at the CO, DIT, NHSX, NHSE and healthcare organisations where requested.
We’re also inviting colleagues to use the chat functions in each channel to discuss problem statements, use cases and collaborations activities.
