'Mind the gap!' : a study of leadership and trust and the impact of change for clinical and IT staff of the National Health Service in delivering the NHS Information Technology agenda - Connecting for Health

Saiger, SM

Abstract

My thesis is concerned with the challenges the NHS is currently facing in two major
areas. Firstly the White Paper; 'Commissioning a Patient Led NHS' (2005) completely reverses
previous strategies of the position of Primary Care Trusts as provider and commissioning bodies.
Secondly this 'about turn' comes right in the middle of an ambitious and on going IT agenda-
Connecting for Health (CflH 2002). CfH is a ten year programme to be completed by 2010 which
aims to have a major impact on the way the NHS in England uses information through various IT
systems and Information Systems.
Focusing on leadership and trust this thesis will debate the implications these variables
have on the Connecting for Health (2002) agenda for IT and clinical staff aligned to medicine. I
will investigate the impact of CfH has within Camborough Acute Health NHS Trust1 (Name changed to ensure confidentiality). I will examine
and consider how the 'soft' value attributes of leadership and trust affect the implementation of
CfH in the NHS. I will show that with a robust leadership change model how clinicians and IT staff
can work in tandem with positive results through the development of Broadening Horizons; a
combined NHS IT/clinical internal leadership programme of education and development aimed at
junior IT staff as an enabler to develop their global awareness and understanding of the NHS
world around them and how this impacts on their inter-relationships with clinicians. Broadening
Horizons is the conclusive stage of this research and developed as a result of my interventional
action research methodology and my interpretative inquiry.
I shall introduce Eriksson (2005) as the change model of choice in motivating change
from within an organisation. I will support Eriksson's (2005) model with the introduction of Ulrich
(1999a) Ouchi (1981) and Toon (2003) as supporting thematic components to describe and
construct my research into the 'soft1 value attributes of leadership and trust. Research, which
seeks to elucidate questions such as these, will draw upon ideas and methods of inquiry from the
discipline of action research.
The challenge to succeed for the NHS is made more acute with the conflicting demands
and tiie fundamental questions relating to political policy changes in recent five years. For the
purpose of this thesis I will aim to address those changes in health and IT that have occurred in
the last five years; hence the title of 'Mind the Gap 1 , which describes the emotional and
pragmatic, challenging and collaborative relationships of the NHS and IT. My research which
began in 2003 mid way through the Government reform agenda and three years into the CfH
programme is an ongoing participative action research study involving face to face interviews, a
personal reflection made through the use of a diary, questionnaires and clinical information
sessions to analyse the gap between trust leadership and potential change for the NHS and IT.

Citation

Saiger, S. 'Mind the gap!' : a study of leadership and trust and the impact of change for clinical and IT staff of the National Health Service in delivering the NHS Information Technology agenda - Connecting for Health. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 19, 2021
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2008