Shazia Akram

Hi I’m Shaz!  I’ve been an IT Project Manager in Healthcare Informatics for North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) for over a decade now and in Project Management for even longer – it has been quite the journey!

I started as a Projects Assistant many (many) years ago in Construction for Leicester City NHS Primary Care Trust, building health and social centres.  By a strange twist of fate, I have worked my way up to IT Project Manager for the NHS and am now helping develop new health and social care centres!

In between those roles, (and amongst other things), I did some very rewarding and incredible work with the Wiltshire Police Force and then the National Policing Improvement Agency as a Project Support Officer.

So, what is it that I do? … something different every single day which keeps me coming back!  On a very high level, I oversee the development and installation of computer systems and technology for organisations.  By working with a team of skilled and committed colleagues, I am able to facilitate the completion of projects.

I have worked on so many interesting projects that if I began regaling you with the stories we would be here for a week!!  So instead of that, I will say that my days are filled up with meetings with colleagues across NELFT, other NHS organisations and local authority councils.  We all work together to be able to provide services to those that need it.  My part is to make sure that we equip staff with all the technology they need so that they can deliver treatment.

The term “Technology” covers so much that sometimes it’s easy to forget that it’s not just mobile phones and laptops.  But it is a massive piece of the world and a huge part of how we provide healthcare to those in need.  From the medical records, the appointments, the Wi-Fi network to handheld devices and everything in between that isn’t medical equipment.

And it’s my job to make sure that we can deliver, in time and on budget – piece of cake, maybe not but fulfilling, definitely and totally worth it!

When I’m not working, I like to unwind and press reset, which mostly consists of binge watching all of the boxsets on all of the streaming channels. So basically I do as little as possible to relax.