A recent EPR service IT Works Health delivered for was with a NHS Organisation prepping to delivery a System C Medway Big Bang Go-Live.The customer was gearing up to Go-Live with ED, Theatres, Outpatients, Inpatients and wider sites within the community aspect of the Trust. I was tasked with recruiting a team of 52 experienced Go-Live support trainers and a Senior Consultant who would work hand in hand with the Trust’s Cutover Manager and Training Manager to guarantee a successful delivery. The project held huge risk due to being delivered across critical wards during a peak in Covid-19.

After speaking with the Programme Manager about the requirements at great length, it was agreed that the priority was to find Training consultants with extensive experience with previous System C Medway Go-Lives and in particular consultants that had experience with Bluespier. Following this, and once the project Team was in place, we would them be set to bring in a Training Manager/Consultant to support both myself in the 24-hour running of the Project Team and take some internal pressures of the Trust’s Management team. I was confident that both my market knowledge and heavily links to the EPR training Network that although being a large requirement, I was in the best position in the market to deliver with both speed and quality.

Within 72 hours I had put together a team of 52 Training consultants and scheduled in a weeks' worth of localisation for the team to get to grips with the Trust’s Go-Live plans and start to complete E-Learning refreshers on System C Medway. Following this, I recruited an EPR Senior Training Manager who would act as the bridge between both myself and the Project Team and be an arrowhead figure for the internal management Team during Go-Live. Once localisation was complete, the Trust made the decision that the Trust was in the strongest position to Go-Live, so the board gave the final signal to flip the switch.

The project accelerated positively with the correct Project team in place and although the first 24 hours across ED and Outpatients was nervy, the Trust’s staff benefited immensely from the support and experience of the Project Team. The Team managed to get the staff in a position that they could loosen the reigns by week two and only required further support in key areas like ED and Theatres before the Team started to support the data clean up.