“Understanding that you can learn from other specialties, from their errors or the good things they’ve done—that’s where my innovation bug came from,” says Professor Angie Doshani, consultant obstetrician at Leicester Hospitals and the brains behind JanamApp, a digital tool that supports South Asian women through pregnancy. “We still live in isolated silos,” she adds. “There’s so much amazing stuff happening around us, which we don’t know about because we don’t have those conversations.”
Doshani, who still works full time in the NHS, set up a community interest company to manage the development of JanamApp. “This is not about making money,” she says. “Everything we earn from licensing this app goes into development or community projects.”
Janam means ‘birth’, and the app offers “culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate” pregnancy and postnatal information in English and six South Asian languages. Trusts pay £5,000 for unlimited users—less than a pound per patient in Leicester, where the app was first launched. Hospitals in Derby, Burton and Chesterfield will launch the app this spring, and Manchester University trust is set to follow.
Early data shows improvements in staff efficiency, with less reliance on interpreters and shorter consultation times. Patient and staff satisfaction rates have improved, with 80% of patients saying they feel better informed after using the app.
“For me, it was all about patient empowerment,” Doshani says. “If you’ve got the right information, you’ll make the right choices, reduce anxiety and self-activate to look after yourself. It’s an investment in the future.”
The new Plaid Cymru government promised a fresh start for the NHS in Wales and ministers have hit the ground running. But setbacks on waiting lists and funding have made a tough gig even tougher, and a radical rethink of the health and care system more urgent. Craig Ryan reports.
Autistic staff make a huge contribution to the NHS but can find workplace life hard to navigate and still face significant barriers to promotion and career development. Neurodiversity coach Victoria English offers a practical guide to supporting your autistic colleagues at work.
NHS jobs are more complex than ever, but the pay system has failed to keep up. With talks between unions and the government on reforming Agenda for Change finally getting underway earlier this year, Rhys McKenzie sets out MiP’s agenda for boosting morale, keeping talent in the NHS, and improving productivity and patient care.
MiP says regulation alone will not improve the NHS culture around raising and acting on concerns, following the findings of the Thirlwall Inquiry into the Lucy Letby case.
After the government unveiled a new barring scheme for board-level executives this summer, plans for regulating NHS managers became a little clearer. But many big questions about how the NHS will regulate, support and develop its future leaders remain unanswered. Rhys McKenzie reports.
MiP has welcomed the government’s decision to limit its barring scheme to the most senior NHS managers, but says the proposal is “a small piece of the jigsaw”.
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