Harrison, Abigail
Abigail Harrison
executive director of digital and infrastructure, Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust
I am the Chief Digital and Infrastructure Officer at Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust. Prior to this, I held the role of Deputy Director for Quality, Innovation and Improvement and CIO for the North West Ambulance Service. I am passionate about transforming health and care for all people by harnessing technology, data and estates, using a methodologically driven approach to improve the way we deliver services. I am a big advocate for clinical leadership and co-design with patients, providing the space for staff, patients and technical teams to work together to generate and test ideas.
I have a unique understanding and combined experience of digital, estates, mental health, improvement and NHS regulatory requirements over my 20 years in the NHS. I have worked nationally, regionally and for providers. I have worked alongside some of the world’s leading healthcare improvers and thought leaders and developed partnerships with industry, academia and health and social care to deliver change. I am passionate about leading teams to deliver standards and governance ensuring safety and security whilst enabling change and doing this thorough collaboration and partnerships where we bring people together to deliver on shared goals.
At LSCFT I have Executive responsibility for Digital and Estates. For 4 years prior I was the CIO at NWAS where we were able to significantly improve our digital maturity, taking us from negative outliers to leaders in the ambulance sector rapidly improving our infrastructure and enabling digital innovation underpinned by improvement methods.
Before NWAS I spent 10 years working in improvement and innovation in Salford. During this time I worked regionally and nationally to deliver national measurement systems, large scale change programmes and provide support to teams testing innovative solutions to some of the biggest challenges across the NHS.