and how to mitigate it… With the NHS in perennial financial crisis, this last week we learn from Jim Mackey, NHSI Chief Executive, that 2017-18 will require providers to find yet another 4.3% of savings, despite the majority stating quite clearly they were running out of new options. The Sustainability and Transformation process was designed … Continued
You work with a huge variety of people. Different nationalities, different cultural backgrounds, different sexes, different colours, different professional groups and different inner humans. However, frequently we don’t experience ‘difference’ so much as feeling we are experiencing ‘difficult’ when in fact difference is the underlying driver of that outward behaviour. This brief educational article is … Continued
Why you pitch poorly We all pitch, even though most of us don’t use those words to describe the scenarios we find ourselves in. The word adequately describes what we do when we present a business case to gain approval for a service development or a new scanner. However, when we raise concerns that the … Continued
An Underappreciated Risk of Educational Supervision It is unlikely that you can remain as an educational supervisor for any length of time without finding yourself at some point with a later stage trainee that gives you severe cause for concern and has you begging the question of how they got to this point with ‘these’ … Continued
With Catastrophic Effects for Current Staff Today is an interesting day. In the last 24 hours we have seen the emergence of 3 distinct news reports that, taken together, virtually require us to conclude something rather alarming and of very personal importance or implication. It could be argued that each of these items taken individually … Continued
The Passive Victim Trap Facing Too Many Doctors There’s no denying that it is supremely tough out there but the terms seem rather fatalistic. Or do they? Let me ask how you currently feel? That’s not a definitive way of approaching the question because how we each feel is likey to be different from one … Continued
The NHS in 2016 RCP have released a pretty stark report highlighting, amongst other things, the significantly increase gulf between provision and demand. This in itself is not news to anyone working on the front line (and I believe not news to anyone in Whitehall either). However, if they ‘know’ but choose not act, you … Continued
Interruptions Can Wreck a Consultant’s Time Management So, you are concentrating on a vital and complex guideline. It’s full of figures and drug calculations. In the middle of a complex sum, the door knocks. You answer… and someone says “can I just have a quick word?” 45 minutes later, with a whole new problem to … Continued
A Typical Time Management Problem for Doctors I fall into this trap sometimes and it’s really common in doctors, so I thought I’d share a couple of quick solutions that people tell me really helped them (feedback from our Time Management Course, which in part looks at stuff like this). The Problem Fundamental to good … Continued
So, doctors are going to be asked to declare their income from private practice as part of an apparent tightening up of conflict of interest rules. We think the reason is different and more career-impactful. Having open declarations of conflict of interest is an essential thing. But is income-level a conflict of interest? The rationale … Continued