Meeting Inspiring Leaders...

One of the great things about the grad scheme is the opportunity to meet NHS leaders who have been generous in giving their time meeting and mentoring management trainees. I have been working with a junior doctor who is interested in management who doesn't have these opportunities so this week we went to meet Mark New bold, the Chief Executive of Heart of England FT. He spoke to us about his career in medicine and how and why he got into management.  We also discussed 4 hour waits, leadership styles and the increase in junior doctors getting involved in management. But what was really heartening for me about meeting Mark was the way he deals with some of the really difficult decisions in NHS management.   

I have been reading Mark’s blogs and diary for a while and I really like the way he explains some of the key issues in healthcare at the moment and how he is dealing with them.  He explained to us that he uses the blog to externalise some of the 'wicked' problems he is facing, such as the 4 hour target. When the whole of the  country  is  struggling with pressure in A&E, how can he ensure that an individual acute trust meets the target? Although at a completely different level, I can identify with facing challenging situations at work.  Most of the time the crisis nature of acute trusts means that there isn't time to put together an informed action plan, and often there isn't a lot of data available to inform key decisions anyway. Most of the issues we are facing don't have a known answer, and certainly no easy answer. Being quite new to the NHS means that I also don't have the past experiences that can be used to inform decision making. However, spending time with experienced NHS leaders means that I can benefit from their expertise.  

I also heard a talk from Emma Donaldson, a doctor and quality improvement lead from Salford Royal Hospitals.  She described how they have managed to improve the quality of care they deliver, through engaging with members of staff at all levels.  The executive team each spend half a day a week delivering front line care, and the chief exec uses this time to put on his health care assistant uniform and clean the top of the curtain rails on the wards! Emma also talked about their different model for clinical leaders- a topic that I find really interesting.  All their clinical leaders have gone through a leadership assessment centre and they have two contracts, one for their clinical work and one for their managerial work, which includes targets and accountability.   A clear link was made to the clinical leaders between mandatory training compliance and saving money- the reduction in insurance would be passed on to the divisions if their mandatory training was up to date! If not, extra savings would have to be made, and this responsibility lies directly with the clinical leads.  

Meeting both of these inspiring NHS leaders has shown me examples in the NHS where the culture is changing through determined leadership.  It is good to see examples of situations where the endless paperwork, pace-setter culture and slow moving nature of the NHS has not been a barrier to enabling change and gives us all something to work towards!