Issue 17. The email was sent. But who’s doing the job?

^{Clinically Intelligent is written by Juwon Akinyande in a personal capacity and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or representative of Barts Health NHS Trust or any other NHS organisation. Content is for general educational purposes only. It does not constitute clinical, legal, or information governance advice. Before applying any guidance to your own practice, consult your Trust information governance lead, your Caldicott Guardian, your line manager, and your professional body.}

A couple of times in the past month, jobs I’d agreed to in meetings have slipped past their dates. Nobody chased me. Nobody was tracking them. I only remembered because I was looking for something else in my inbox.

This isn’t a dig at anyone. It happens to me, which is why I’m writing about it.

Most of the time it isn’t intentional. Something else comes up, another email arrives and the job slips down the list.

Sending an email or agreeing to do something doesn’t necessarily mean the work is being tracked.

You might have five meetings in a week, each with its own actions. Suddenly you’re relying on memory to keep track of what needs doing, what matters most and what you’ve already said yes to.

There’s plenty competing for that space.

You’re seeing patients, running a service, trying to supervise and the admin never stops. That’s before you consider what’s happening outside work.

Productivity apps like Asana and Notion exist. But they often mean introducing another system that people have to learn and remember to use.

I wanted to know whether there was a simpler way to keep track of outstanding work using tools we already have access to.

Enter Microsoft Planner

In Issue 13, I said I wanted to explore more of the Microsoft 365 suite and understand what was already available.

I was looking for something that could help me organise my work without adding another complicated system.

I considered one of the newer AI-powered to do apps. I decided to look at Microsoft 365 first.

I also wanted something that worked alongside Outlook. That’s where most of my conversations and actions start.

That’s how I came across Microsoft Planner.

Planner is a task and project management tool. It lets you organise work into plans, assign responsibilities and keep track of progress.

Putting Planner to the test

To test it I created a fictional project called Review induction checklist.

I broke it into three tasks: approving evaluation questions, sending a resource pack and booking a training room.

For each task I set a start date, deadline and priority. I set reminders and assigned the tasks to myself.

I wanted to see what else Planner could handle. I added a website link and a SharePoint link to one of the tasks.

Then I explored the different views.

The calendar showed how the tasks were arranged across dates. The charts presented the work differently. I also looked at My Day to see how I could focus on what was in front of me.

I tried the Timeline view. It required a premium plan.

I came across templates for things like project management and employee onboarding. Rather than starting from scratch, you can build off an existing structure.

Another feature caught my attention. Task chat. Planner lets conversations sit alongside individual tasks. Colleagues can discuss a particular job without having to search through a separate email chain.

I didn’t test that with another colleague. I could see why it might be useful.

By this point I’d explored more than a basic to do list. I had a project with individual tasks, dates, priorities and links, and several ways of viewing the work.

The part that impressed me

What I liked most was how organised everything felt.

The layout was clear. The different views made sense. I could see how several projects would sit in one place without clashing.

Being able to assign tasks to specific people was particularly useful. Instead of an action sitting in meeting notes or an email, it had an owner and a deadline.

But something else happened during my test.

Planner sent me an email reminder.

It told me one of my tasks was due that day and showed me two more coming up.

Where it fell short

There were a few limitations.

The biggest one for me was the Outlook connection.

Because so much work starts with an email, I wanted a way to turn those conversations into tasks the team could track.

Flagged Outlook emails appeared in Planner under My Tasks. That was useful. It wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.

Planner showed me the emails. It hadn’t identified the jobs within them, assigned responsibilities or added them to my shared plan.

I still needed to do that myself.

It had captured the email. But not necessarily the action.

I also couldn’t access the Timeline view without a premium plan. I didn’t find any AI functionality in the basic version I was using.

That doesn’t mean Planner has no AI features. It means they weren’t part of what I was able to test.

One wider limitation.

You can set up an organised task board, assign responsibilities and create deadlines. People still need to update their progress.

If nobody maintains the plan, it could become another place where forgotten jobs collect.

I tested this solo. The whole point of Planner is shared work. A plan held by one person is a to-do list. A plan held by a team is a shared memory. I will come back to this in a future issue once I have used it with my own team properly.

A note on information governance

Planner isn’t an AI tool. But it is a shared workspace.

Task names, descriptions and attached links can carry identifiable information if you’re not careful. A task called “Review Mr X’s therapy plan by Friday” has told everyone with access to that plan who the patient is.

Treat task names and descriptions the way you’d treat meeting notes shared with the wider team. Composite phrasing where the task involves a specific patient. Links to documents, rather than pasted information.

If you are ever unsure ask your IG lead before you share.

Where this actually fits

The induction project I used to test it is composite. Here are three real contexts where Planner would earn its place.

Student placements. Educator teams juggling several students, each with their own objectives, tutorials, assessments and sign-offs. Planner would let you hold each student’s plan separately but see them all together.

QI projects. The hardest part of a QI project is tracking the actions nobody owns yet. Planner forces an owner on every task. If you cannot name one, the action is not real.

Audit follow-ups. Audits generate recommendations. Recommendations generate actions. Most of those actions get lost between the audit meeting and the next one twelve months later. Planner is where those actions can live between meetings.

Where to start

Open Microsoft Planner on your Trust account tomorrow morning.

Create one plan. Pick three actions from your last meeting. Give each one an owner and a date.

See whether anything moves.

Would I use it again?

Yes. I intend to keep using it.

I didn’t need a tutorial. The different views made sense. I could bring tasks, responsibilities and supporting information into one place.

The email reminder was an added benefit.

I wouldn’t suggest moving all your work into Planner tomorrow.

But if your team regularly agrees actions in meetings, delegates jobs by email or struggles to see what’s still outstanding, I’d try it with one small project.

Give the tasks an owner. Set deadlines. Agree how often you’ll review progress.

The important thing is to make sure the plan doesn’t become another system everyone forgets to check.

Planner can help you see what’s outstanding. It can’t make people take responsibility for it.

Next week. The government has accepted all 44 recommendations on how AI in healthcare should be regulated. Here's what that actually means for the people using it.

In case you missed it

AI scribes are moving into mental health and ambulance work

Two NHS organisations have started using AI note-taking in settings we don't usually hear about. Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust has introduced an AI scribe for its mental health services. North East Ambulance Service is trialling AI note-taking with paramedics (Health Tech Newspaper, 2026).

Why it matters for us. Most AI scribe coverage so far has been GP consultations and outpatient clinics. Mental health and pre-hospital care are different. Conversations are less structured, the environment is harder and the stakes on getting the record right are high. If scribes work there, they'll reach community and therapy services next. That's most of us.

The publication is one part of Clinically Intelligent. There’s more to explore, contribute to and build.

Next week: The government has accepted all 44 recommendations on how AI in healthcare should be regulated. Here's what that actually means for the people using it.

If someone you know would find this useful, pass it on.

^{The AI tools discussed in Clinically Intelligent are consumer products. They have not been independently assessed by the author against DCB0129 or DCB0160 clinical risk management standards, and they may not be approved for clinical use by your employer. Before using any tool described in this newsletter in connection with your clinical practice, you must satisfy yourself that its use is permitted under your Trust information governance policy, your DSP Toolkit obligations, your professional registration requirements, and any applicable contractual terms with your employer. The author accepts no liability for use of any tool or workflow described in this publication. Patient identifiable information must not be entered into any consumer AI tool under any circumstances, irrespective of any guidance contained in this newslet}