A Warrington IT specialist whose programming skills helped support a five-fold increase in on-line training for NHS staff as covid-19 spread is predicting another spike in learning.

Chris Bain from Chatbot Labs, located in The Base on Dallam Lane, says he is expecting monthly training sessions on the E-learning for Healthcare portal to rise again if the predicted second wave of infections strikes in the autumn and winter.

He points to initial on-line sessions leaping from a monthly average of 90,000 to more than half a million before Easter as NHS staff undertook training to help them prevent the spread of covid-19.

Bain’s role was to provide the critical coding that enabled returning NHS staff recruited to operate the country’s Nightingale Hospitals to access training materials from home and refresh their skills.

“It was great to play a part in something so critical to the UK’s ability to deal with the pandemic.  All credit to the retired and former staff who returned to the NHS at the country’s time of need,” said Bain.

His input enabled the new staff to draw quickly and seamlessly on the NHS’s vast databank of training materials and meant that the health service could provide new training content that staff could easily ‘self-serve’ on-line.

He and a wider team are now involved with providing critical coding that enables the seamless import of users participating in the government’s ‘track and trace’ project.

Commenting on Chris’s role, Sylvie Morton, business development manager with Langtree which manages The Base for owner Warrington & Co said: “We have the skills here in Warrington to deal with the most challenging technical issues.  Being at The Base enables Chris to tap into a wider network of expertise to deliver his game-changing work” she added.