The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting effect on the working practices in many industries and organisations, and the NHS is no exception. Video outpatient appointments have become increasingly common for many hospital specialties and over one in three GP consultations are now conducted virtually, compared with one in seven before the pandemic [1,2]. But […]
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“The cobbler’s children have no shoes” by Emma Hadley and Partha Kar
Partha Kar: “Family must look after family” So goes an old African proverb. Yet somehow the NHS has always struggled with the basic concept of that. Caught in the cocktail of shrinking public funds, greater desire for efficiency, increased demand from the public as well as unrealistic expectations set by politicians, the NHS has tried […]
Organisational Values: A much needed refresh by Abdul Zubairu
‘Should we provide some additional phlebotomy appointments for the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)?’ I asked my wife as we sat having our evening dinner. The background to this conversation was that our local CCG had asked the GP Federation, for which I am a Medical Director of, to provide some additional phlebotomy service to deal […]
‘Magical Meander’: Breaking bad news
You might think as a doctor I was used to breaking bad news. Yet it seems that there are areas that have the ability to still challenge me. Weak spots in the skill set I have slowly build up from many years of supporting patients and families come to terms with life altering news. These […]
Creating tomorrow today: seven simple rules for leaders. Blog five: Support people to build their agency at every level of the system by Helen Bevan and Göran Henriks
We have created a set of “seven simple rules” for leaders who want to create tomorrow today, based on our collective learning over seven decades as leaders and internal change agents in the health and care systems in England and Sweden and the work we have done with leaders in health and care in many […]
Interviews: Asking the wrong questions by Roger Kline
The NHS is awash with Action Plans to create more diverse recruitment and career progression and melt the snowy white peaks of the NHS which still symbolise the failure of the NHS to tackle race discrimination. Post Gorge Floyd, such efforts increased but I suggest progress will be glacial unless employers (and unions) pay more […]
Workforce race discrimination adversely impacts patient care too by Roger Kline
There is, finally, a growing awareness of the impact of race discrimination on Black and Minority Ethnic patients. Not so well known is the impact of workforce race discrimination on patient care and safety. For leaders determined to improve the quality and safety of patient care, tackling workplace race discrimination is not an optional extra. We […]
Is it possible to ‘Have it all’? by Josie O’Heney
Since September 2021 I have been working as a National Medical Director’s clinical fellow. This fellowship has been enlightening about what happens on ‘the other side’, with a break from clinical work and instead spending my days on teams, zoom and emails. One of the aims of the scheme is to expose trainee doctors to […]
The road less travelled…by Aideen Dunne
One of my favourite poems is “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and in summary it is a poem about the choices we are presented with in life. I have often used this poem as a compass when making big decisions, to challenge myself, am I doing something because it is a well-trodden route […]
Mentorship Mantras by Vineet Chopra, Ravi Pendse, & Sanjay Saint
It is hard to mentor in socially distant times. Stimulating growth and development in others, taking on new proteges, or helping mentees succeed is challenging in a virtual environment. It is tough to escape the lassitude of isolation and the incessant back-to-back Zoom meetings to find time for meaningful mentorship. It becomes a chore that […]