Abstract
Amid the slashing sound of treasury cuts, Her Majesty's Government has raised the whisper of clinician leadership. Pragmatic medics may view this as a cynical attempt to subdue the profession in troubled times for the health service. Others will view it as an opportunity to restore rightful leadership to the NHS and banish the 20-year plague of managers. A middle road that marries the most clinically savvy managers with the most managerially skilled clinicians is probably the wisest.
Invariably, the future reality of the NHS is tricky to decipher from present government rhetoric but the preparations for clinician leadership are gathering pace. Aidan Halligan believes that the financial crisis will impact on the duty of care to patients although instead of being a disaster for patient care, the emergence of a new cadre of clinical leaders could result in the NHS’ finest hour. To that end, Halligan and colleagues at University College London Hospitals have set up an NHS staff college to establish a new global standard in the development of healthcare leaders (
Four themes of leadership will be at the heart of the NHS staff college curriculum: self-awareness, self-management, leading the team, and big leadership. But most leaders could devise their own themes within moments. The success of the NHS staff college, and other leadership initiatives, will not be in the use of terminology. It will be dependent on bridging the distance between doctors and managers, restoring a sense of vocation for healthcare professionals, and removing a culture of fear and slavish compliance.
‘If we always do what we always did,’ writes Halligan, ‘we will always get what we always got.’ And it is this challenge I wish to throw open to JRSM readers. If we accept the survey results of the Institute for Health Improvement, the American Joint Commission and the Rand Corporation that point to a rift between doctors and managers, how do we bring these protagonists closer together? What do we need to do now to improve the relationship between doctors and managers?
We might need radical thinking, and I invite JRSM readers to submit their 50–100 word contributions by the end of October, the best of which will be published in the December issue of the journal. ‘Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men,’ said the management guru Groucho Marx, ‘the other nine hundred and ninety-nine follow women.’ He might have solved the crisis of the NHS with such original thinking. Now it's your turn.