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Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio Director Rhian Hamer has an impressive track record in transformational business-led change. She has been named as a finalist in the Inspirational Individual category in the UK IT Industry Awards 2023, which are due to take place in November. We sat down with Rhian to find out what attracted her to the role and how she is making an impact.
Q: What drew you to your role as director of the Portfolio?
DMTP is an ambitious transformation change portfolio which will benefit patients and clinicians across Wales. It will make the prescribing and administration of medicines safer, easier more effective and more efficient. Following previous roles in the private sector and as a consultant for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I was excited to move into healthcare. I have enormous respect and love for our NHS and am passionate about making a difference for patients and clinicians. I am also committed to delivering sustainable and environmentally friendly changes as we reduce the amount of paper used across NHS Wales. I feel both proud and privileged to lead this change.
Q: What has the Portfolio achieved to date?
Establishing the Portfolio involved recruiting and onboarding a full team from many different backgrounds. In just 18 months we have come together to make enormous progress across all elements of the Portfolio.
This autumn, we will move into the delivery of an e-Prescription Service (EPS), whilst earlier this year, in partnership with Life Sciences Hub Wales, we launched the Community Pharmacy System Innovation Fund to help suppliers of digital community pharmacy systems in Wales deliver the service.
We have established a multi-vendor framework to help deliver Secondary Care Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) and are working closely with all health boards in Wales on procurement activities.
We are also working with NHS Wales colleagues to put processes in place that will enable us to introduce the first Shared Medicines Record for patients in Wales. Exciting progress has also been made in a short time on the NHS Wales App, which will enable patients to better manage their healthcare and make it easier for them to do things such as ordering repeat prescriptions.
Q: How have some of your previous successes helped you in this role?
I have been delivering major transformational change for over 25 years. I am proud of what I have achieved in that time, including being recognised by Welsh Government as one of the Top 10 Contributors to Transforming Public Services in Wales in 2016. I led transformation change at the Ministry of Justice for ten years before advising ONS on the design, test and build of the UK’s first digital Census in 2021. These roles highlighted the importance of putting people at the heart of everything we do in terms of service design and delivery. The patient’s voice is so important to me in delivering sustainable change that will make a real difference to their journey.
Q: How have you shaped the culture of a new team?
I am a compassionate leader with a drive for delivery. I believe that relationships, not power, drive delivery and, as such, I invest time and effort in building effective relationships, both within my own teams and externally. To me, leadership is about creating other leaders, encouraging collaboration and enabling decisions to be made as close to the work as possible. It’s essential to trust your team and to treat everyone with respect and fairness.
We are keen to challenge the norm and to try new ways of working, always bringing everything back to the patient or service user. Within a few weeks of coming into the post, I led the development of a DMTP Charter and core values, reinforcing our mission to put patients, the public and clinicians at the heart of what we do. I want the Portfolio to be recognised as a team that is focused on delivery and puts the patient and service user at the centre of our work.
Q: How do you plan to do things differently?
I’m a firm believer in gaining knowledge through experience. It’s important to spend time on hospital wards and in GP surgeries and pharmacies to see what’s really going on – not what we think is going on. I’m keen to make evidence-based decisions using data. I also hope I can contribute to the wider Digital Health and Care Wales team by mentoring and supporting colleagues and opening up learning and development opportunities.
Q: How do you look after your wellbeing in such a busy role?
I play badminton and squash and I love travelling – I’m a firm believer it opens our minds and helps us see the world through another person’s lens. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel extensively and I’m trying to get into the ‘100 Club’ for people who have visited 100 countries. I haven’t got many left to go, but the next ones on my list are a little harder to travel to!
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