NHS digital tiger team support is part of NHS England’s published plans for trusts wrestling with electronic patient records. Unfortunately, the first emergency appears to involve an old spreadsheet that has painted stripes on itself and is hiding behind a quarterly dashboard containing three versions of Tuesday.
NHS England’s operating model, published on 30 January 2025, promises continued funding for trusts to develop and improve electronic patient records, with additional implementation support from tiger teams. The spreadsheet has requested an implementation team for its implementation team, followed by a short period in which nobody implements anything near it.
The plan puts digitisation at the centre of a more productive health system. At the Directorate of Keyboard Dignity, EPR wrangler Dr Pippa Shortcut said the team would begin by asking every folder why it had four names, no visible owner and a password last seen during the coalition government.
“The aim is to help staff find the right information quickly,” said Dr Shortcut. “We will map the route from the clinical system to the backup spreadsheet, then establish why both insist that Colin is the only person authorised to open them.”
Electronic records can give authorised staff quicker access to diagnoses, treatments, medicines and test results. They can also replace paper records whose handwriting has previously required a specialist, a magnifying glass and a family history of the ward. The digital future promises secure access and better sharing. Each new login still receives a project board, a lanyard and a webinar about its feelings.
Deputy Commissioner of Helpful Buttons Armand Paste said the tiger team would move quickly. “We brought biscuits, adapters and a neutral face for when the printer mentions 2009,” he said. “If a trust has seven systems that refuse to speak, we will introduce them at a small meeting and provide name badges.”
The stated destination is a safer, more efficient service built on usable information. Its immediate challenge is persuading the spreadsheet that camouflage is not a recognised form of data governance. By Friday, it had demanded a password reset, legal representation and the right to remain in read only mode until someone could prove Tuesday had happened only once.
Real story: NHS England programme overview, NHS England operating model, 30 January 2025.
