Hi Adi, thank you so much for chatting with us today – let’s start by you telling us your job role and when you joined DSFS.

I’m an ICT End User Services Manager, and I’ve been with DSFS for just over three years and prior to that Chesterfield Royal Hospital for 23 years.

Tell us a little bit about how you came to be in your role.

I chose to work for the NHS because I wanted to give something back following a few accidents I had in my mining career. The care I received from the NHS during some of the lowest points in my life was exceptional. Following my last accident in 1997, which ended my mining career, I wanted to give back and say thank you – so I went back to college for a few years to study maths, English, IT and electronics.

Then I was offered a work placement in the NHS – I started on the helpdesk, followed by working in first and second-line technical support, working my way up to supervisory management becoming a systems manager, diagnostics systems manager, and then now my current role as IT End User Services Manager.

I’ve got a lot of operational experience – 25 years gained from working in ICT, and Applications Support teams – the last eight as an Operational Team Leader/Manager. There were quite a few things I wanted to affect change on; such as getting ICT colleagues and our team recognised, raising the profile of ICT and to get recognition for the projects we’re involved in and contribute towards.

What does a typical workday look like for you and your team?

That is a hard question! I am one of three managers, and my primary responsibilities are for our first and second line technical support. My role includes strategy, supporting operational pressures, monitoring service disruption and anything that affects service. A lot of our planning and information comes from our twice-daily operational meetings – I get to catch up with the team and find out what is coming up, what came in overnight and what our priorities are for supporting the Trust. We review our plans daily and projects regularly, as well as looking at the calls that come through from colleagues to the service desk, we try to identify any patterns or potential minor or major incidents that may arise. We keep a close eye on clinical services, as we need to know about these issues as soon as possible as the problems affect patient care – these can change priorities on the day, week and in some cases, the month.

What do you want to celebrate about your role/team?

We’ve still got a lot to do and achieve, but we’re a great team. We can do great things, we’ve just got to try and pull it all together in line with the changes that are happening in the wider NHS, the Trust and the changes and developments in the IT industry. That’s what we all want to do; run the best service that we can and achieve service excellence.

What challenges do you face in your role, and how do you overcome them?

Did you know that we look after satellite sites too, right across North Derbyshire? This can be a challenge as it also includes the clinical systems and software that colleagues use. However, with everybody working together, including Switchboard and Medical Records, we can offer a wider range of support for our users, not only at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, but our community too.

For example, Switchboard colleagues support our on-call service – if a colleague needs a password reset out of hours, our switchboard team has been upskilled to be able to offer this service quickly and effectively. On average we receive around 180 calls a day (and calls are rising) – we are a very busy department. Our amazing service desk can offer a remote fix for around 85% of calls, which is incredible. They limit the number of calls coming back to the technical teams, and also help solve problems faster for our colleagues.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with #TeamCRH, DSFS and RPC colleagues in your ‘service spotlight’?

We’re doing a lot of recruitment into our team, which has been really successful so far. We have two new colleagues join the team, and six weeks in, they’re both doing really well, and have already started to make a huge difference for our users. I’m proud of how we worked together during COVID-19. Our involvement is continuing with projects like digital maternity, EPR and UECD, and we’ll be able to impact change from the offset, making a better patient and user experience. Watch this space – we’re going to keep going from strength to strength, particularly with some of our large projects on the horizon, like EPR.