For episode 53 of the National Health Executive podcast, we were joined by the Centre for Mental Health’s CEO, Andy Bell, to speak about the government’s approach to mental health and care, reforming the Mental Health Act, and how the short, medium and long-term future of the NHS looks.

Speaking on some of the NHS’s future plans and goals, Andy highlighted the importance of people being willing to change. The current service model is not going to be suitable forever, he added, in fact it does not even suit the population now – at least for certain groups of people.

“That does have to shift and co-design is one way of doing that and indeed co-production of care,” he said. “We’ve seen many examples of the some of the most exciting ways of providing mental health support over the last few years have been developed within communities.”

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For episode 52 of the National Health Executive podcast we were joined by National Voices’ CEO, Jacob Lant, to talk about the first weeks of the new government, his relationship so far with health secretary Wes Streeting, how Lord Darzi’s report should land, and the way forward for the third sector.

Speaking on what he wants to see over the course of this parliament, Jacob said: “A bit more forensic analysis on who is waiting longer – we know from previous research that it tends to be people living in the poorest communities in the country who wait longer, it tends to be ethnic minority individuals, it tends to be women, [and] people with disabilities.”

Helping people wait better and being smarter about those experiencing the worst outcomes is critical for Jacob.

He added that the biggest thing that charities can help the NHS with is being that connection into the community and the organisations that National Voices represents are not there to deliver services “on the cheap” but in fact to be a strategic partner.

Listen to the full episode to hear Jacob thoughts.

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For episode 51 of the National Health Executive podcast, we were joined by Dr Dan Rose, who is the medical director for UK and Ireland at Everlight Radiology, to explore the radiology workforce crisis, what solutions can be put in place to address the issues, and whether teleradiology can be the future for the sector.

On flexible working, Dan said that it is a key recommendation from the royal college that was accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He added: “The additional benefits that brings is that it’s a recognition that the old ways of working – globally, not just in medicine, not just in radiology, but globally – have undergone a sea change essentially. Colleagues are much more aware of the ability to be able to work flexibly.”

Listen to the full podcast to learn more about how teleradiology and Everlight Radiology are creating a more sustainable workforce, the ‘follow the sun’ model’ and the three key takeaways for listeners.

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For episode 50 of the National Health Executive podcast, we were joined by Dr Nicky Huskens, CEO at the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, to talk about everything from some of the recent investment being funnelled into the sector, to hopes for the future with the new Labour government.

Some of the funding includes the next stage in the government’s £40m pledge to develop new lifesaving research. That pledge was made by the previous Conservative government – on collaboration with the new government, Dr Huskens said: “I’ve spoken with the [DHSC] team before they came into power and they are big fans of the mission-led approach and the work that the brain tumour community has been doing

“I think going forward, in the first instance, will be working together with the civil servants to launch those three calls – the HP call, the consortium, the care call – and to do that really well and engage the community to participate. From there, I would say the sky is the limit!”

Listen to the full podcast to hear Dr Huskens’ thoughts on improving best practice sharing, the state of the neuro-oncology workforce, the importance of data in the sector, and more.

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For Episode 49 of the National Health Executive podcast, we were joined by David Hemming, who is service lead for major programmes at NHS Shared Business Services. We spoke to David before our Estates online conference, where he featured on our Building the Hospitals of the Future panel.

We asked him about the NHS estate, Hospital 2.0, and the New Hospital Programme (NHP)—right before chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a pause to the NHP so it could undergo a “complete rest”.

“Many people are aware of the NHP, [but] there are different levels of understanding of what its actually going to deliver—there is still quite a lot of work to actually get that level of communication and stakeholder engagement out.”

He continued: “Part of this is [that] I’m bringing my knowledge of NHP. Do I have a complete and full knowledge of the NHP? I would say ‘no’ because it’s such a large programme—there are many different elements, but I’m also keen to understand, from other people’s perspective, what is their perception of the NHP [and] where do they think there are issues because that helps my understanding.” Knowing this can help NHS SBS modify their service offering.

Listen to the full podcast to hear David’s thoughts and stay tuned for National Health Executive’s next magazine edition for what the NHP pause could mean for the health system.

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For episode 48 of the National Health Executive podcast, we spoke to award-winning and internationally acclaimed broadcaster and journalist, Pete Price, about his life and experience with aversion therapy on the NHS. This episode contains explicit language and strong views

In the podcast, we explored how aversion therapy ties in with conversion therapy and what the Bill that has been making its way through parliament since last year means for the LGBTQ+ community and society as a whole.

Notably, the Bill was included in the King’s Speech this month, as it seems Sir Keir Starmer intends to press ahead with banning conversion practices.

“First of all, conversion therapy: I knew nothing about,” said Pete. “It’s reared its ugly head a few times, I’ve been on television and talked about it. Conversion therapy is where they brainwash you; aversion therapy is what they did to me, so that’s what we’re going to be talking about.”

In the podcast, Pete discusses his childhood, family and the period of time he spent in a ‘hospital’ undergoing aversion therapy.

He explained: “Growing up was very difficult for me because at the age of 12 I discovered I was a homosexual and didn’t understand it, didn’t know what it was about — all I knew was my pals were all going out with girls and I wasn’t.

“I wasn’t attracted to girls but I went out with girls, so I fought my sexuality; growing up I fought my sexuality because, in those days, I was a criminal — it was against the law to be a homosexual!”

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For episode 47 of the National Health Executive podcast, we were joined by Sue Holden, the CEO at the Advancing Quality Alliance — otherwise known as Aqua.

Sue spoke about her leadership philosophy, where that mindset comes from and the epiphanies she’s had while working in the NHS.

She said: “We can focus on the ‘what’ and forget the ‘how’ is where the magic happens, so — from my point of view — I’ve had the privilege to work with a lot of organisations in various different guises.

“Certainly when I was working with trusts that were really challenged, not one of those organisations didn’t have magic in it, didn’t have a brilliant service, didn’t have a team that was going above and beyond, and didn’t have people that were doing exciting things.”

There were also small pockets that needed support and the mark of a good leader is fostering an environment that enables the people who are struggling to access the help they need, explained Sue.

Sue also highlighted the four times in her career she has had an epiphany or “things that have really sat me back on my heels and made me rethink my own perspective” as she puts it.

“The first one was when I was a student nurse — that was back in the 80s...”

Listen to the full podcast to hear Sue’s insights and the pivotal moments in her career.

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In Episode 46 of the National Health Executive podcast, we were joined by Trish Greenhalgh, who is a professor of primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford, as well as a former GP.

Trish offered insight into how the primary care digital transformation journey is going, specifically since the explosion of innovation observed following the pandemic.

Trish highlighted some of the recent research she has been doing in general practices looking at digitalised aspects of care that have in fact impacted disadvantaged people negatively, widening already existing health inequalities.

“The pandemic was a pretty big shock,” said Trish when explaining some of the theory around external shocks speeding up the innovation process.

She added: “We had to immediately, or in the space of a fortnight-three weeks, shift general practice from a face-to-face model to a remote model and I think it is one of the major achievements of general practice in this country that we did that — we did it really quickly and we did it effectively.

“We responded to the shock, and then the question is, ‘Well hang on a minute, what do we do now?’”

Listen in full to learn more about government priorities, co-design and more.

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