IHSCM Podcasts: Recent Episodes
Institute of Health and Social Care Management
The Institute of Health & Social Care Management's (IHSCM)Podcast Channel. Here you will be able to listen to Roy Lilley’s e-Letters, IHSCM HelathChats, Workshops and 20 Minute Social Series.
You may have enjoyed two or three as you sat at an outside table in a whitewashed taverna, shaded from the summer sunshine by a simple blue and white canopy. As the sea lapped against the taverna’s harbourside pontoons, perhaps there may have been a bottle of local white wine propped in an ice bucket at the side of your table. You’d have been handed the menu, and your eyes might have lasered in on the starters section where they may have alighted on ‘soft shell crab’. Mine certainly would have done – they are one of my absolute favourites, first tried at a crab shack adjacent to the Potomac River in Washington DC and a taste revelation never forgotten. The texture is bordering on unique, with a slight crunch giving way to softness and then more gentle layers of crunch. And then there is the taste – a sweetness blended with salinity and, if you are smart to request it, a little bay seasoning sprinkled over the top.
There you are – that will have you salivating all morning, assuming that you are least a pescatarian. Apologies to the vegetarians and vegans out there, but I needed to share this with you, for reasons that will become clear.
Soft shell crabs are harvested at specific times of their life cycle, as they undertake the process of molting. As the crab grows, its hard exoskeletal shell begins to inhibit further development, so Mother Nature has devised the process whereby the old shell is discarded and a new one grows in its place, able to accommodate the increased bulk. Once the old shell has been discarded, the crab takes time for its new shell to harden – and that is when the fisherman takes the harvest.
I invite you to consider the NHS and social care as a large crab. It has, at various times in its existence, fed well and its size and strength has developed. It has molted several times over the years, occasionally adopting very peculiar new shells (thank you Andrew Lansley), but it has lived on. Now it’s a giant, but another molting has happened, and it’s been a struggle. The old shell of NHS England was consigned to the seabed earlier this year and the beast now hides, naked, awaiting its new shell to harden so that it can go about its work confidently protected against attack. Trouble is, it’s been nearly 4 months now and the shell is simply not hardening. The continuing nakedness means that it lacks the strength or confidence to function properly and is vulnerable to all sorts of perils. Many of you reading this will be familiar with those perils – poor morale, disaffected workforce, inadequate resources, lack of clarity and direction, and, above all, continued service user disappointment.
If next week’s promised launch of the 10-year plan is expected to be the shell hardening catalyst to finally get the beast operating again, then I’m anxious. The three central shifts that we know will form the foundation of the new plan (hospital to community, analogue to digital and treatment to prevention) are themes that we have all been addressing for the last 20 years. Most of you will be able to point to case studies in your own organisation that directly and successfully address them. The plan is expected to go big on the NHS App and AI. It is expected to demand reform and redirection. It is expected to put efficiency at the epicentre. You and I both know, from bitter experience, that these outcomes need time as well as skilled, capable people and the freedom to act.
In my view the crab doesn’t need and can’t afford to wait for a spectacular new shell that will be 10 years in the making. It needs something functional, safe, and effective to get it operating now and for the next couple of years. Otherwise, it risks being snagged in a net and drawn up to be the piece de resistance on a hot shellfish platter.
I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.
Stay safe, stay strong, and thank you for the brilliant work you are all doing.
Jon Wilks
CEO
IHSCM
This was our first in-person HealthChat event for some time and we welcomed NHSE Chair, Richard Meddings, as our guest. Sitting at the heart of an organisation under extraordinary strain from a covid hangover, waitlists, workforce crisis, funding arguments and, well, you judge what it must be like, Richard has a challenging job. What's it like to Chair in such circumstances? How does be maintain balance? How does he address fault lines? What advice would he give aspiring leaders?
This fabulous event was made possible by IQVIA and regular sponsors Orcha and Voror Health Technologies.
Alastair McLellan has been the editor of HSJ since 2002, overseeing its metamorphosis into a digital-only publication.
What are the big themes and changes which he predicts for health and social care in the future? Where are the pinch points which might stifle development and progress? How will funding match the aspirations of a public now conditioned to expect care irrespective of lifestyle choices? How will the relationship with government evolve?
Roy Lilley, as ever, will be leading the questioning.
Join us for our first Round Table event on Domestic Violence as part of our monthly Workforce Wellbeing SIG Meeting.
We discussed:
- Other culture's take on what violence is and how to address DV. Sharing experiences of ethnic and non-English approaches.
- Tips on how to identify behaviours and cues and what not to do.
- Support for staff, team members, family, service users and their families.
- Root causes and barriers.
- How to maintain relationships
- Health inequalities
- Representation and creating awareness
- Support for men and women.
Our Panellists for this event:
- Jainaba Jum, CEO, Queen Holistic Initiative
- Jeredyne Stanley. Founder & CEO, Rivers LPC
- Mwamba Bupe Bennett MCIPS, Senior Contracts Manager and Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust.
- Piotr Gass, Strategic and Transformation Lead for Mental Health, Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust.
- Mark Brooks OBE, Domestic Abuse Services Manager, Trustee Chair of the ManKind Initiative and a co-founder trustee of the Men and Boys Coalition
Following a long career as a pilot and subsequently as Chief Inspector of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Keith Conradi was asked to set up and become Chief Inspector of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch in 2015. In short, could healthcare approach safety and learning in the same way as the aviation sector has done?
In November last year Keith Conradi announced his retirement from the role, prior to a critical Kings Fund report into leadership at the HSIB.
This HealthChat is a reflective interview with Keith Conradi by Roy Lilley, covering the role and function of the HSIB, its effectiveness and the extent to which it has achieved the original aims.
An IHSCM Round Table Event in partnership with ORCHA. What is your approach to digital risk?
Roy Lilley meets:
Dr Lloyd Humphreys, Managing Director at ORCHA and NHS Innovation Accelerator alumnus
Dr Tom Micklewright, NHS General Practitioner
Linda Vernon, Acting Digital Culture and Transformation Clinical Lead at Lancashire and South Cumbria ICS
Martin Skyes, Chief Nursing & AHP Information Officer, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
...to discuss:
Managing risk to support and promote digital health adoption and use
Digital Health Policy
June Hall, Chair of the IHSCM Digital Special Interest Group, is also on the panel representing our IHSCM Health and Social Care members.
With the advent of Integrated Care Systems in England imminent (July 2022), Mark Britnell of KPMG presents and discusses integrated care solutions from across the world. What do the best do and can they be replicated here? What is an integrated care system designed to achieve? What outcomes should they be measured against?
This is a pivotal HealthChat, essential viewing for anyone associated with integrated care systems at any level and in any discipline.
IHSCM How to do Virtual Wards PowerHour, 15th February 2022.
We were joined by an expert panel discusses the details around virtual wards. Roy Lilley will be joined by Professor Alison Leary, Elaine Strachan-Hall, Steph Lawrence, Alexandra Evans and Dr Elaine Maxwell for an unmissable hour of insight, expertise and guidance.
If your organisation is running or planning to run virtual wards, then you simply have to wacth this PowerHour.