NHS Digital’s Professor Jonathan Benger has been awarded a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year’s Honours List for ‘services to the NHS’.
Prof Benger, who is chief medical officer at NHS Digital, has played a key role during the Covid-19 pandemic, including oversight of NHS Pathways, NHS111 online, the NHS.UK website and the NHS app, all of which have been central to the pandemic response.
He and his team have been working to embed a clinical emphasis within the culture of NHS Digital and promote the ‘clinical first’ approach – a philosophy that everything has a clinical focus through its impact on patients.
Before his role at NHS Digital, he was the national clinical director for urgent care at NHS England, where he led reform of the ambulance services and wider emergency care system, including implementation of the NHS England review of Urgent and Emergency Care, the development of the NHS Long Term Plan and the Emergency Care Data Set.
It is the great work Jonathan has conducted during the pandemic and his ‘services to the NHS’ at such a difficult time that has led to his recognition in the 2022 New Year’s Honours List.
Prof Benger said: “Health and care has always been very much a team endeavour, and one of the challenges of recognising individuals is that it’s important at the same time to recognise the team that supports them.
“We have an incredible team at NHS Digital, and I work with some fantastic people. Individuals are honoured with awards but of course it’s really a whole team effort and acknowledgement.”
Just a few months ago, Jonathan spoke at Digital Health’s Autumn Leadership Summit, where he stressed that to successfully integrate the NHS organisations need to “take the workforce with us”.
Professor Jonathan Benger will officially receive his CBE later in 2022, along with the other individuals whose work shone during the pandemic, including England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty and deputy CMO, Jonathan Van-Tam.
15 January 2022 @ 11:40
Effectively : have obtained a print out of my Covid Vaccine records from GP practice along with a covering letter to take on travel to Spain. No place or name of health professional recorded on second vaccine page, this being the vaccine received in Wales. – Checked on NHS Covid App Pass again : on downloading the Pass to Apple Wallet on phone, ONLY one of my First or Second vaccine is accepted as both share header ‘ Dose 1 of 2 ‘, this inaccurate classification must determine what is accepted for final format to present. I will not know with any certainty that I will gain entry to Spain. or on to departing flight, until tomorrow at Gatwick or at arrival airport in Spain. Issue logged since over one week ago week with NHS Digital App Team, Vaccine Data Resolution Service. No resolution yet.
13 January 2022 @ 11:15
I see my second comment has been taken off, not quite sure why, perhaps because of my criticisms based on my experience of the system or technical errors on my NHS Covid Vaccination Records / NHS Covid Pass / App. The rather convoluted history of my attaempts to get this corrected in order to use Covid Pass with confidence. Clearly there are issues with datea transfering from e.g. Wales NHS to England NHS ( see the many comments to this effect on previous articles on this website ). Then, in order to get incorrect data corrected on the system : Latest chapter : as directed by GP Practice / 119 / appointment booked at ” Tell us about vaccinations received abroad / outside England ” website, I managed to book an appointment yesterday 12/01/2022 at The Artix in BROMSGROVE, I live in London. Nowhere nearer available. I went to Bromsgrove, they had no record of my booked appointment nor Reference, The staff were very helpful, they saw me under category of Overseas. I explained situation, we looked at my Covid Pass and checked records. Error on header for second vaccine ( ” Dose 1 of 2 ” ) and my second vaccine still not showing on PINNACLE. Told that at BROMSGROVE Vaccination Centre they cannot update my records that my GP practice should be able to update records…phoned GP practice as very fed up at this stage. They are trying to help. Why did the system send me to Bromsgrove, with a booked appointment reference which was not on the system there ? There are clearly gaps in the system. Any acknowledgement ? Thank You, RS
9 January 2022 @ 19:04
Very good Prof J Benger, can you assist with the following issue, which I see on here applies to many : I received my second vaccine in Wales, when visiting in May 2021. I live in England. It took many weeks after contacting my GP and NHS Wales Trust for my online digital NHS Covid Records to be updated. I have checked recently, Jan 2022, post-booster Nov 2021. Listed as : First vaccine – Dose 1 of 2. Second vaccine – Dose 1 of 2. Third/Booster – 3 of 3. Do you see the glitch ? Today NHS would not produce letter certificate – Data Error. Will the QR code be correct ? I am due to travel to Spain 16th Jan : will I gain entry ? Clear that as Dose 2 of 2 header / box is not complete on Record/Pass this is resulting in rejection / incomplete Covid Pass, as second dose is Crucial. How to get this corrected ? I have tried, NHS Digital – cannot help. Phoned, they will try to refer. Denial of Certificate Pass stated call 119 speak to Datea Verification option. Did so, advised need to make appointment at Vaccination Centre to get this corrected. Spoke to another 119 advisor, helpful, said some issues with vaccines issued in Wales / England. Advice need to make appointment with Department for Vaccines received abroad / outside England to visit with paperwork to update records correctly. Warned webpage will say No appointments available / Unable to help with enquiry. Keep trying. This is exactly the case today. I will keep trying. Uncertain of making any progress. I will visit a walk-in Vax Centre to ask, plead, see if they can update my Covid Pass records to correct Dose 2 of 2 header. My second vaccine on NHS Covid Pass records Did Not show on their system Pinnacle at Booster. No guarantee of this, I wish this was easier to correct. No guarantee Spanish authorities will accept my pass as stands on travel 16th Jan 2022. It is not a very good situation to be in nor does it seem that the system is well-devised or managed. How to get this fixed in my case and in the case of other thousands ? Please. Thank You. RS
5 January 2022 @ 18:23
That’s great news
Pathways has a lot of good features but needs rewriting bottom-up and implementing as a national system in 111and 999.