Covid Vaccine Passport Support
Government Department of Health
by Ian Dempsey
3 min read
During the height of the pandemic, a government agency urgently needed to issue Covid travel passports. The technology solution designed for automation failed on launch, leaving a five-person team facing over 1,000 manual applications per day. I was asked to lead the rapid design and implementation of an interim operating model, scaling capacity to meet public demand while maintaining full data compliance.
Challenges Solved
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A public-facing crisis with daily media coverage and political visibility.
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No contingency plan for manual processing.
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No pre-trained staff or infrastructure for scaling operations.
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Entire operation had to be built and managed remotely under lockdown conditions.
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Strict GDPR compliance for sensitive health data.
Approach
In just one week, I assembled and led a multifunctional team of nine SMEs, working with the client’s internal staff to stabilise the situation. We:
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Mapped the existing process and identified immediate bottlenecks.
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Designed a temporary operating model with documented workflows, escalation paths, and KPIs.
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Recruited and trained 60 third-party call-centre agents within days, growing to 180 over two months.
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Established a telephony system, CRM platform, and live dashboards to track progress.
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Refined processes weekly as performance data emerged.
Business Value Delivered
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Provided real-time visibility into the backlog and capacity, allowing executives to communicate confidently with government and media.
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Enabled the successful issue of thousands of passports that would otherwise have been delayed.
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Identified and resolved several core system defects.
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Established a scalable and compliant operational model that remained in place for over 18 months.
The Highlight
What stands out most is the teamwork and resilience displayed under immense pressure. We built a functioning operation from the ground up in days, remotely, during a national crisis. It remains one of the most challenging but rewarding projects I’ve led.
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