Between WannaCry and Covid-19, cybersecurity in the NHS came into greater focus for many organisations and staff. The security and resilience of their digital systems became a conversation that n those outside the dedicated IT and cyber teams considered. Some likely already knew what needed to be done, or the basics of best practice, but there hadn’t before been the hunger to invest and improve.
In Merseyside, it presented the IT and cyber professionals an opportunity to drive new innovations. Already a proactive region when it came to NHS cyber, the additional scrutiny around healthcare digital security allowed the teams to showcase some of the innovative work underway, and some of the areas which required further attention – bringing colleagues and board executives into the discussions and securing the necessary buy-in.
Speaking with Steven Parker, Associate Director of IT at NHS Informatics Merseyside, he explained: “From a cyber perspective, we’ve always had a view on what needs to be done, but that was really highlighted by the WannaCry ransomware attack.
“It put us in a good light because there were quite a number of organisations across the area that had to shut systems down because they weren’t patching effectively or didn’t have good backup policies.
“We led the response from the Cheshire and Merseyside perspective. I chaired a number of those calls. It gave us a good footing, from a cyber perspective, and helped us develop further the innovation which led to our recent award.”
The award in question that Steven is referring to is the 2022 CAN Awards Innovation of the Year Award, which was won by the team at NHS Informatics Merseyside.
To read the full article with Steven Parker, NHS Informatics Merseyside, click here.
