60 Second Interview: Murray Bain

Murray Bain, director of IT at NHS Direct

Murray Bain is the director of IT at NHS Direct. He is in charge of all IT issues at the call centre and online help and advice service.

What’s the first thing you do when you get into the office?

I make myself a cup of peppermint tea and then I check how NHS Direct’s technical infrastructure has performed overnight. NHS Direct is a 24/7 operation requiring continual quality control.

Your favourite gadget at the moment?

The 3G card for my laptop – it allows me to be available 24/7. Vital for an organisation like NHS Direct!

What’s the best thing about your job?

NHS Direct is a dynamic organisation. We deliver a high quality health information and advice service and aim to make a difference to the lives of people in England 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I get job satisfaction knowing that my department delivers a high quality, high availability service which underpins everything NHS Direct does.

Favourite book or song (or both!)?

‘Winning is not enough’ by Jackie Stewart

Pet hate?

Laziness. NHS Direct cannot afford to be lazy – not only would it put patient’s health at risk but it would stifle our efficiency, vision and drive.

Favourite website?

I have two favourite websites: nhsdirect.nhs.uk of course and Google – it is such a fountain of knowledge.

What annoys you?

People not answering telephone calls

In a perfect world, what would you be doing?

I would be spending more time on my hobbies – veteran and vintage cars and travelling.

What’s caught your eye recently?

The splendour of the newly refurbished St Pancras station which I go through every day.

e-Health innovation that interests you at the moment?

The opportunities for multi-channel interaction are enormous but I think the health sector still appears to be slow in the take-up of these technologies. The NHS is still largely a face-to-face organisation yet there are huge opportunities to interact with patients in diverse ways across different channels. The NHS needs to make better use of NHS Direct – we have after all a state of the art telephony system providing a multichannel contact centre which is able to underpin a wide range of services to patients up and down the country.

Read EHI Primary Care? We want to get to know you! If you work in NHS IT and would be happy to take part in a 60 second interview contact E-Health Insider Primary Care reporter Joe Fernandez on: joe@e-health-media.com Tel. 0207 7856901