During a recent phone call with Peter Lees (founding director of FMLM), he was a little surprised that I knew that he had been at the recent King’s Fund leadership summit[1],[2], espousing the virtues of leadership at the Royal College of Pathologists[3] and at the BMJ group awards[4]. Despite being on call all week, the use of social media have allowed me to not only know this information but to see pictures of the events and read quotes of what was said. Medical leadership news, to me, isn’t about reading news covered by print journals or about emails I receive.
As the Faculty for medical leadership and management opens for business, I’m wondering where junior doctors will fit into its infrastructure.
Doctors in training are best placed to see frontline inefficiencies and often have innovative ideas for system improvement. While Fortune 500 companies actively nurture talent and sponsor their emerging leaders, the NHS (Europe’s largest employer) has traditionally expected medical leaders to evolve organically. This meant climbing the ranks to consultant followed by frantic survival of the fittest.