The Leeds NHS worker making a difference in her mum's memory

NHS worker Tracey Whitfield  took a job at the heart of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust after her mum's  death because  she wanted to be able to make a difference in her memory.
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Now the trust's head of electronic health record delivery, Mrs Whitfield is part of the team helping NHS staff to work in a different way following the coronavirus outbreak, with many more now working remotely from home.

The YEP is celebrating #healthheroes across Leeds, who are helping our nation safe during the coronavirus crisis.

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Mrs Whitfeld was working for NHS Digital when her mother Sandra, 69, of Derbyshire, died in 2015 after suffering from a brain tumour.

Tracey WhitfieldTracey Whitfield
Tracey Whitfield

Mrs Whitfield, 50, said: "When my mother sadly passed away my experiences of the patient side of the NHS made me realise I wanted to be part of the teams that can make a real difference to the patient experience.

"She had a poor journey through the NHS and there were lots of things that didn't work as well as they should have worked. That had quite a big impact on me.

"I had worked in the NHS for nine years, but nothing I had done had made any difference to my mum.

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"Working directly for an acute trust, I could have more impact than I'd had before as I was closer to the frontline for patients."

Within a few months of her mother's death in Derbyshire, Mrs Whitfield took a job with the informatics team at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

She is in charge of the team which created a custom built electronic health records system so patients' full records are instantly available to all clinicians.

Her team is responsible for hospitals’ information technology, from delivering the latest software which automatically tracks hospital resources, to fixing problems with laptops, and everything in between.

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Mrs Whitfield has seen her job change since the Covid-19 outbreak began as information technology is at the centre of effective remote working, so her team has been incredibly busy behind the scenes.

She said: “We’re supporting systems which mean all our colleagues at every location can continue to deliver the highest levels of patient care - such as a new programme which allows our patients to attend consultations via video link.

"We’ve also had team members ensuring that IT services are available to projects like the Yorkshire and Humber NHS Nightingale Hospital site in Harrogate."