They shared their initial thoughts and proposals for the project, including the framework, procurement process and indicative timescales. They were aiming to seek constructive input from the suppliers and providers present to help shape the GPSoC Replacement Framework.

There was an interesting illustration of a "Day in the life of a GP" which listed the current core GP IT Services as well as outlining the system interface mechanisms proposed between the core and additional services and systems that may exist in the future.

Tim, Seb and myself also recently attended two of a series of briefings in London and Birmingham given by Oracle to outline NHS Trust's options for when the Connecting for Health's Oracle Enterprise Wide Agreement expires in June 2014. 

 

The Roadshow, featuring Peter Dyke (Head of Industry Liaison, Connecting for Health and owner of the Enterprise Wide Agreements) as a guest speaker, described the changes in Oracle's Healthcare product suite, starting with being a purely a database company to today where Oracle can be properly described as offering a coordinated suite of healthcare products and services.

Oracle representatives outlined the EWA, its components and how a Trust can audit their Oracle estate with the help of it's engineers and partners (such as ThinkShield!), before the EWA expires in 2014 along with all its licenses.

Behind the slickly presented exhibition booths and suited vendors, there’s a dark secret all exhibitors share… the “pre-opening set-up panic”.

 

It seems so easy, put up a few screens, connect a few cables, put out some leaflets and off you go, but something always goes slightly wrong.

 

I was already chancing it this year by running our main plasma screen off a raspberry pi, yet this years gremlins were our mice, none of which worked when we got to the NEC...

 

It turned out that there were such an overwhelming number of Bluetooth devices in the vicinity, the only way to get a solid connection was to haul our servers away from the hall, pair them with our mice and bring them back again.

 

Once this was all sorted out though, it turned out to be a fantastic exhibition!

 

Of particular interest was the “Skunkworks” open-source arena right beside us, showing some of the solutions (and discussing some of the perceived problems), an open-source IT approach can bring. YouTube

 

We also particularly liked Symantec’s stand, an empty white wall…

Over the course of the exhibition they asked people for their thoughts of NHS IT and slowly started creating a drawing based on them.

See if you can spot a little caricature of Tim beside his comment!

 

Thanks to all of you who visited us, and also thanks very much to IBM for their support helping out at our stand.