Cultural Divide in the UK National Health Service

A Conversation with Andrew Reed, CEO at the Royal College of Surgeons

Andrew Reed has over 30 years of experience in the NHS. Having originally trained on the NHS graduate programme he joined the Royal College of Surgeons (@RCSnews) from NHS England where he was Director of Commissioning Operations for the West Midlands. Andrew brings a wealth of leadership experience in the health service, having held three CEO positions, including  at Bedford Hospital NHS Trust and Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust.  His numerous achievements during his 7 years as CEO of Ipswich include accolades for the hospital’s record on patient safety and securing accreditation and funding for a specialist heart service at the Trust to deliver the highest possible care to patients.

Listen to the Conversation

5 Episode Takeaways

  1. As with many healthcare systems there is a cultural divide between managers at frontline clinicians in the UK NHS.
  2. Clinicians can feel that in a public-funded health system decisions about the way services are provided can be driven by cost considerations.
  3. It is possible for managers and clinicians overcome the divide by spending time understanding the different perspectives.
  4. Often these relationships improve when a project brings them together to find a solution to a specific challenge.
  5. Professional training of managers and clinicians could include more time devoted to shadowing each other.

Host

Julian Tyndale-Biscoe

Senior Partner, Health
LinkedInJulian Tyndale-Biscoe

About the Show

FINN Voices amplifies the power of health innovation to improve people’s lives. Hosted by health experts from FINN Partners, each episode offers a peek behind the curtain of innovation with healthcare’s leading changemakers. We talk about their ideas and challenges along the way; continually shaping critical conversations and answering the most important questions in healthcare today. Follow the show’s hashtag #FINNvoices.

On the radio weekdays at 7am, 3pm, and 11pm ET.