The storm, the sea, and why healthcare isn’t about the NHS at all. By Rich Taunt

Place your bets! Between now and the election we’ll see a raft of NHS flashpoints – maybe the scarcity of GP appointments, longer waits for treatment, or the ongoing saga of what constitutes fair pay for doctors. We can’t say what will grab the limelight, but without doubt something will. These NHS squalls are nothing […]

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We should all shine a light on ‘mental health as a universal human right’. By Dr. Nagina Khan

World Mental Health has been celebrated every year on 10 October. The theme for 2023, set by the World Foundation of Mental Health, is ‘Mental health is a universal human right.’ However, is the mental health of those that work in the mental health services itself not worthy of mention and deep concern? Today we […]

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Achieving Menstrual Equity: A Call for the Inclusion of South Asian Diasporic Experiences. By Prema Vyas, Ruta Sachin Uttarkar, Shilpa Darivemula

Across the world, an estimated 1.9 billion people menstruate, and yet about 500 million people experience substandard access, safety, and autonomy to manage their cycles—an epidemic of menstrual equity (1,2). In the United States, two-thirds of the 16.9 million menstruating people living in poverty could not afford menstrual products, with half of this population needing […]

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When it’s time to go, is there anywhere for me to go? By Sue Holden

Leadership within the NHS has never been more critical. The need to support staff, remain resilient to the ongoing operational challenges create space to develop services which are locally responsive and inclusive are all pre-requisites for organisational success. However, for every leader there is also the need to know when it is time to move […]

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Difficult health conversations are no game – but VR could transform how they unfold by Professor Dame Lesley Fallowfield

This article was originally published on the RSM website. Original article link Having difficult conversations with patients is an undeniable reality in healthcare. The way these exchanges unfold can have profound consequences, shaping the doctor-patient relationship and leaving lasting impressions. A collaboration I was heavily involved in between the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) and […]

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Drop Bio Health Pioneers At-Home Sampling for Clinical Research. By Cagla Ertugrul

Thanks to their convenience and personal privacy, at-home sampling and test kits first gained a foothold in the over-the-counter market with the introduction of pregnancy tests in the 1970s, followed in the 1990s by products for detecting sexually transmitted diseases. Since then, the product category has expanded widely to include self-administered swabs for DNA and […]

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Clinical Leadership Placements: A View from a student Physiotherapist. By Kathryn Harris

My final placement as an undergraduate studying BSc physiotherapy was based with the NHS Leadership Academy, part of Health Education England. My university includes a leadership module within its 3rd year syllabus so I deemed this placement irrelevant, but open to see what might come of it, so I asked myself – What does good […]

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No more silos–our survival and success depend on collaborative leadership and development, and we can’t start too soon. By Emma Challans-Rasool and Charlotte Williams

This is our third blog, and it finds us further ahead in our ongoing journey to understand why managers and medics struggle to lead collectively and with trust and transparency in the NHS today. In our earlier blogs we explored how well understood healthcare managers are[1] and how partnership working in practice can be hampered […]

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Moving away from branded organisational values: why we need a disease-model for organisational culture by Ali Raza

Culture is notoriously difficult to define because it is made up of so many components and influenced by so many factors. One characterisation of culture is that it is the ‘distinctive norms, beliefs, principles and ways of working that combine to give each organization its distinct character’ (1). West et al. argue that the priorities […]

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Why the manager / clinician partnership is essential – meeting elective recovery targets inclusively by Bola Owolabi and Paul Doyle

If we are intent upon answering our most serious questions, from climate change to poverty, and curing diseases to designing new products, we need to work with people who think differently, not just accurately. Matthew Syed, Rebel Ideas, The Power of Diverse Thinking A wicked problem Nationally, clinicians are working hand in glove with managers […]

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