Nick’s digital date at Downing Street
Nick Peres, our Programme Director for Digital Innovation and Transformation, shared some of the incredible, groundbreaking work taking place across our organisation to support digital healthcare with the Prime Minister and Health Secretary.
Nick was invited to attend a garden party at Downing Street to discuss the possibilities of using creative and digital technologies to support people in our hospitals and communities and preventing and managing health conditions to support the government’s shift from analogue to digital healthcare. The event was part of London Tech Week.
The garden party showcased British tech innovators, and Nick proudly represented our NHS. He spoke to Sir Keir and Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, about our use of XR, eye tracking technology and creative technologies for health, and how our Digital Futures team is developing solutions to support patients and our teams in-house. Guests and business leaders tried one of our VR headsets to see how we’re exploring the use of technology to help people manage their mental health and pain conditions.
Nick said: “It was a privilege to be invited to attend and I got to meet the Prime Minister and talk to ministers about the work we’re delivering in Torbay and South Devon, and our approach to work with clinicians and our patients to use technology to co-design ways to enhance care.
“It was great to show some of the ways we are using technology in Torbay and South Devon, which is in-line with the government’s three big shifts to transform our NHS.”
Ashburton Health and Wellbeing Centre is shining thanks to new installation
A customised stained-glass window which documents Ashburton’s history has been installed at the health and wellbeing centre.
The installation, called Diamond River, was created by Devon artist Amy Whittingham who specialises in cut-glass, and is inspired by the River Ashburn and the stained-glass windows of the Chapel of St Lawrence. Each cut glass texture has its own influence, and together these create a flowing pattern of colour and light, displaying a river of memory and place.
The installation was commissioned by our artist in residence, Helen Snell and funded by NHS Charities Together. The artwork combines cast and flat glass in a vibrant palette of blues and yellows, fitted into rusted laser-cut steel. The play of light through the glass creates shifting patterns on the surrounding surfaces, offering moments of reflection, curiosity, and calm to all who pass through the Centre’s entrance.
Watch the interview with artist Amy Whittingham where she discusses the process behind creating Diamond River.