Thursday 11th July – Woodend Creative, Scarborough

Our second set of conversations to Transform Health and Care took place in Scarborough. From the moment I picked up the 9-seater charabanc (I had asked the car hire company for a big boot!) I knew this was going to be an interesting day.

For many of us long term residents of Leeds the A64 is a special road, full of memories of days on the North York Moors or the Yorkshire Riviera.  And as the familiar sights and sounds of Scarborough appeared I had to remind myself I was here to work – not stroll on the beach!

About 30 people from a range of backgrounds, and all over the north of England, came together to take part in an ‘Open Space’ afternoon to explore how digital might be used to transform health and care.

We held a total of seven conversations over the afternoon.  These are listed below and each is accompanied by a short write up and some graphics too.  Just click the links on the ones that interest you.  And please do join the conversation by using the comments to add your experiences and insights or to ask questions.

It was such a pleasure to see people smiling, connecting with new people  and generally enjoying the work!   Scarborough has a population of about 61 000, so it is not a big place, and yet people working in the same field in the same town met each other for the first time.  It was especially lovely to see the education team from York Hospitals Trust talking to social workers from Scarborough about setting up some joint training.  This just would not have happened had they not this chance to meet and talk about ‘what matter most’.

Here are some notes from the conversations we held in Scarborough and some of the images that Tom drew to go with them…

1. 1. Annis Coby, Re-Shape, How do we better connect our health service to facilitate referrals? 
   2. Vanessa Garrity, Yorkshire & the Humber NHS Leadership Academy‘How do we promote the positive aspects of coastal towns?’
   3. Tim Hunt, Medical Ed Tech specialist, York Teaching Hospital ‘Engaging with digital functions within the NHS’ 
   4. David Jackson, Scarborough and Ryedale Carers Resource ‘How to better include carers’ 
   5. Richard Askew, Askew Brook , ‘Appetite for Risk’
   6. Simon Town, Roots of Ygdrassil/ Rachel Benn, Leeds Libraries ‘How do we better help communities and how do we motivate people to access digital health services?’ 
   7. Meshell Heelbeck ‘How can we use technology in prevention?’

We’d love to know what you’ve learned, reflected on, what you feel you want to continue talking about. If you’d like to write a post for the blog, share your notes or help us connect with other people who might like to join the conversations please do let us know through the comments here…

Our next date in September will be in Hull, location and date to be confirmed, let us know if you know of a great location and people we should be including in the event.

To see what we talked about when we visited York… click here