My Oxehealth placement by Charles Nosiri

I joined Oxehealth on an 8-week placement from the NHS Finance Leadership Scheme. The placement provides the opportunity for future NHS senior leaders to broaden their technical experience and develop transferable skills from outside the NHS. From my perspective, it is also an opportunity to learn about and have the first-hand experience with new technologies and solutions that will help improve and transform NHS services.

I have always been a firm believer in the critical role that technology has to play in the future of an effective NHS. I work within a Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) whose aim is to drive service improvements and transformation across North East London CCGs and trusts.

I first heard of Oxehealth from Dion Davies, a director in my STP workplace, and felt that the company could be a game-changer for inpatient care in the NHS. Oxehealth has developed the Digital Care Assistant (DCA) using world-first and proprietary technology. Oxehealth’s technology uses an optical sensor to pay attention to a patient in a room. Oxehealth’s algorithms can see movement in the room, rather like a human eye would. When someone walks into a room, the DCA detects where they are, even in total darkness.

Oxehealth’s Digital Care Assistant substantially improves all aspects of clinical and on ward inpatient care (assessment, periodic patient checks, reacting to prevent incidents, effective incident review & continuous improvement) in mental health, acute and care home settings. The DCA can do this by providing real-time alerts to risky activity, contact-free vital sign monitoring, sleep & activity reporting and incident reviews.

I met the Oxehealth team and felt that I would be a valued member of the group in an intellectually stimulating, fast-paced and entrepreneurial environment. The combination of exciting transformative technology and a fantastic learning environment made my decision for placement at Oxehealth a no-brainer.

During my placement, I enjoyed being part of the outstanding work going on at Oxehealth. You can feel the collective passion in Oxehealth to improve inpatient care and improve lives. The team I worked with was brilliant and supported my personal growth throughout my placement. They actively found opportunities for me to be challenged and learn. My background is in Finance, but I was able to work across Finance, Outcomes and Commercial.

Within Finance, I worked directly with Simon, Oxeheath’s COO to review the current purchasing and payment processes by analysing Oxehealth’s expenditure. I identified areas where it was useful to establish control processes as well as areas to improve efficiencies for future spend analysis.

For Outcomes, I worked with Dan who was my line manager and Georgina (best team ever). Together we developed a model to evaluate the financial benefits of the Digital Care Assistant. This has helped Oxehealth develop a business case for the NHS Mental Health Trusts. Financial benefits modelling developed my ability to approach problem-solving in a structured and logical manner. This was a new skill for me, so was challenging at first. But Dan was very patient and supportive throughout the experience and it’s a skill I’ll be using daily when I return to the NHS.

I was also able to shadow Charlotte, Oxehealth’s Mental Health Business Development Director, in sales meetings and map the needs of wider NHS stakeholders (such as commissioners, STPs, etc.). I validated these needs by working with Oxehealth and external stakeholders (e.g. set up and attend meetings with STPs, AHSNs). This has helped the commercial team identify new ways to partner with NHS Trusts, commissioners and other groups and therefore potentially accelerate Oxehealth’s growth.

Coming from a very established and large NHS workplace, I found the work culture in Oxehealth fascinating. Teams are highly motivated and at any level of the business, you’re encouraged to have responsibility for your work and use your initiative. I found this nurtures innovation at speed within Oxehealth. Weekly planning sessions bring the whole company together and enable everyone to learn about each other’s latest achievements.

All of Oxehealth's perks come together to make the company a great place to work. You can enjoy company lunches on Tuesdays, then settle into playing table football with colleagues, and you feel like your work is creative, valued and has an impact.

Oxehealth is a very innovative, forward-thinking and exciting organisation. It was a pleasure to be part of it.