Andrew Raynes

“We all have a unique story to tell,” quips Andrew Raynes, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Cambridge-based Royal Papworth Hospital, one of the world’s top 100 medical institutions. 

Indeed, Raynes’ story is certainly unique. Starting his career as a hospital porter, Raynes’ introduction to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) saw him “moving bodies to mortuaries, collecting posts, taking patients to X-ray and even driving ambulances.”

With a role in technology and information seemingly far off from these beginnings, Raynes soon became interested in a project the NHS undertook in the early 1990s, developing the first green screen technology implementations of a path system. 

Joining the development team, Raynes enjoyed being part of that team and working for a community hospital at the time. 

“I was helping to train and deploy the new technology,” he adds, “and I very much remember going through that early technological change. It was a nerve-racking time because NHS staff hadn’t used technology like this before.”

Nonetheless, this experience set the path for Raynes’ tech future in public service. From there he moved to different roles in IT, from past implementation to information governance.

“I actually became Head of Information Governance at one point, and had an opportunity to act as Assistant IT Director at a Primary Care Trust, which had around 29 GP practices under its belt,” notes Raynes. 

Things soon became a whole lot bigger for Raynes when he moved to work at a Strategic Health Authority (now abolished as part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012), a nationwide initiative aimed at digitising the NHS through electronic patient records.

From there, following time at the National Programme for IT, Raynes moved to a consultancy to gain experience in the commercial sector, before self-funding a masters degree and rejoining the public sector at one of London's prisons, HMP Thameside on the Belmarsh estate. 

From the prison estate he joined a local Authority rolling out a children’s and adult’s electronic social care record in Leicester before finding himself back in the healthcare sector, though, at a major acute hospital in London as an IM&T Director. 

“The learning from this was incredible,” notes Raynes, and placed him in good stead for his role today – CIO of Royal Papworth Hospital.

“I feel so privileged to be working at a hospital again, and I have a deep passion for the NHS that I’m sure is shared by my colleagues,” he adds. 

“I've been here now for six years as CIO, and what I love about the role is being responsible for the technology, supporting transformation and helping staff with their needs and technological understanding.

“The role is also about problem-solving and creating value. Where there are issues, it's about how we solve that problem.

“It’s about taking people on a journey with you and managing everyone’s different views and insights. It can be a challenge, but as soon as we can get the majority onboard with transformative change for the better, the rest of the organisation will follow.”

Read the full story HERE.