We are pleased to announce the appointment of Abigail Harrison as Chief Digital and Infrastructure Officer. Abigail joins the Trust Board from the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) where she has held the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the last four years, providing strategic leadership across all digital functions and leading her team to rapidly transform the digital landscape. As a proven innovator, she believes in collaboration with partners within the NHS and beyond including industry and academia to deliver the NHS our communities deserve.
Abigail has worked in the NHS for 20 years with experience in local, regional and national roles and is passionate about transforming health and care for all people by harnessing technology, data and estates, using a systematic approach to improve the delivery of services.
Chris Oliver, CEO for Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust said,
“This is a great appointment for LSCft and the Board is delighted to welcome Abigail. Abigail is a big advocate for clinical leadership and co design with patients, providing the space for staff, patients and technical teams to work together to generate and test ideas.
Abigail showed many examples of her patient centred innovative approach to the digital agenda and we are excited to have Abigail on board to drive similar innovative change across LSCFt as part of our digital future.”
Some examples of how Abigail’s energy and passion for co design has worked at NWAS included the introduction of a digital design forum and the inclusion of digital champions bringing together colleagues to drive digital change. Large scale change under Abigail’s lead, has also seen the introduction of digital trainers to support the transition to Electronic Patient Records (EPR), streamlining 111 and 999 systems and progress in cyber security and resilience. In estates Abigail has been instrumental in the development of estate architecture such as fully digital smart sites supporting remote and hybrid working for clinical staff. Abigail is looking forward to the opportunity to maximise the LSCft environment through combined estates transformation and digital innovation
