DrDoctor Will See You Now

In this episode, we conclude our conversation with Milica Stjepanovic, Deputy Director of Operations at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, unpacking how the Trust moved from a full to a choice booking model - and what happens when you layer automation on top. Mel shares the phased rollout that took Imperial from two services to Trust-wide adoption, the cultural shift needed to make it stick, a...

In part two of our series with Umang Patel, CCIO at Microsoft, Tom and Umang explore what the NHS's digital future really looks like once you get past the infrastructure excuses - and who's actually driving change. Drawing on real clinical encounters, startup lessons, and a candid conversation about purpose vs profit, this episode argues that the bottleneck was never the technology. It was always...

In episode 2 of our series with Professor Ian Abbs (former CEO of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust), we discuss what it actually takes to lead one of England's largest healthcare organisations - and why the NHS systemically underestimates the risk of doing nothing. Ian traces his CMO-to-CEO transition, his "inverted triangle" leadership philosophy, and the cultural and structural barriers...

In the second episode of DrDoctor Will See You Now with Imperial College Healthcare, we look at the numbers. Since going live in August of last year, the results have been striking: hospital cancellations down 59%, patient-initiated cancellations down 45%, and the DNA rate dropping to an all-time trust low of 9.4% - with a target of 7% firmly in sight. Mel and Tom also dig into how the backlog is...

Microsoft Chief Clinical Information Officer and paediatric doctor, Umang Patel joins the podcast to reflect on his journey from Babylon and early digital health experiments to today’s AI revolution. Having first met in 2012, Tom and Umang discuss lessons from the 2010s, the NHS’s unique strengths, and the growing role of clinicians in leading transformation. The episode explores practical changes...

In this episode, Tom talks with Professor Ian Abbs, former CMO and CEO of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, about his journey from medical school and renal transplantation to hospital leadership and digital health advocacy. They discuss the NHS's organisational changes, the Guy's and St Thomas' merger, the foundation trust era, and the cultural lessons from early clinical computing. Ian r...

In the latest episode of DrDoctor Will See You Now, we explore the intersection of technology and operational change in the NHS with Milica Stjepanovic, Deputy Divisional Director of Operations at Imperial College Healthcare Trust NHS. With Tom, she discusses giving patients options, control and agency through Choice Booking of appointments, as well as the operational and patient experience benefi...

In this final episode of our two-part series, Tom Whicher and Professor Joe MacDonald take a look at what the NHS needs next: build on what already works (shared care records, EPR foundations) and add the missing coordination layer that patients and carers feel most acutely. Joe argues the NHS is unprepared for the “demographic time bomb” of ageing, multi-morbidity, and end-of-life care, and that...

In this episode of DrDoctor Will See You Now, Tom Whicher speaks with Professor Joe McDonald (clinical psychiatrist; former National Clinical Lead for IT in mental health; advisory board member at The Access Group; and Digital Health royalty) about why large, centralised government IT programmes repeatedly fail, and what the NHS should do instead. They explore the “Goldilocks” project size: when b...

DrDoctor Co-founder & CEO, Tom Whicher and Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust CCIO, James Woollard and CDIO, Alison Furzer conclude their conversation on digital transformation at Oxleas. In this final episode, we explore how ambient/AI scribe tools, agentic AI and tight EPR integration can remove “grit” from clinical workflows while protecting the cognitive space clinicians need to think. Value won’...

DrDoctor Co-founder & CEO, Tom Whicher and  Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust CCIO, James Woollard and CDIO, Alison Furzer continue their conversation on digital transformation at Oxleas. They look at why digital change in mental health and community services is less a tech problem and more a people-and-process one, unpacking staff assumptions, the tension between clinician control and patient agenc...

In the first of a three-part series, DrDoctor Co-founder & CEO Tom Whicher caught up with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust CCIO, James Woollard and CDIO, Alison Furzer to explore Oxleas’ pioneering journey in digital mental health and patient engagement - from early adoption of electronic patient records to their collaboration with us, enhancing digital communication and engagement with patients an...