The NHS is a behemoth organisation by anyone's measure. Not only does it move medical mountains but requires IT solutions that support a scale comparable with any Silicon Valley unicorn. Historically many of these solutions have been procured through traditional contracts and relationships with the large outsourcing organisations we hear about in the media together with the vast sums of tax payers money that have been paid.
These outsourced solutions we often mediocre in performance and in meeting business needs. This public sector culture of outsourcing often creates many problems through inflexible contracts, prescriptive ways of working and difficult to navigate hierarchies of responsibility.
To move away from this means shouldering far more leadership responsibility than many contemporary public organisations have been used to. It takes management bravery or what some might call good old traditional leadership. Andrew Meyer and Gary Green talk about the change in operational style that has revolutionised recent NHS Digital IT delivery and in doing so begin to forge a new standard.