Dr Kieran Sandhu
Kieran Sandhu studied Medicine at University College London and went on to complete his foundation and core training in various trusts within North West London including Chelsea and Westminster, Imperial Healthcare and Hillingdon. He has been a specialist trainee in Rheumatology and General Medicine since 2017, having recently completed his ST6 year at Wexham Park Hospital.
He has also worked as a volunteer doctor in Malawi, learning to approach problems laterally to deliver care despite limited resources. While there he led a project on weekend handover, introducing a practical tool of a handover book with an auditing process. He also co-ordinated a fundraising strategy for the city’s hockey club, networking with local players and British hockey contacts to raise enough money for the team to participate in the African championships in Zimbabwe.
His main passion outside medicine is hockey, and he currently plays for Slough Hockey Club 1st XI. He has held various roles at the club including 1st XI captain, coach of various youth team and his currently role on the club committee as a discipline co-ordinator. Hockey has strongly augmented Kieran's leadership and organisational skills, as well as providing a welcome distraction from the rigours of the NHS.
Throughout his career, Kieran has taken a keen interest in identifying areas in which services could be improved at a local level and engaging with that improvement process. He led a multi-site quality improvement project to address the issue of medical rota gaps which was causing staff morale and patient safety concerns. He has been involved in managing Covid surge rotas at two different trusts, co-ordinating the regional Rheumatology teaching website to increase access to teaching materials for all trainees and leading multidisciplinary quality improvement projects such as one with the Rheumatology nurses' helpline, empowering allied healthcare professionals to get involved in improvement activities alongside doctors. He also has a passion for education and in particular mentoring, as he believes the amount of untapped potential within the NHS workforce is huge and waiting to be harnessed.
Reason for applying for the scheme
As his breadth of knowledge of how the healthcare system functions has increased, so has his awareness of the obstacles to achieving sustainable change within the NHS. This has led him to try and learn how to overcome these and become an effective driver of real change. He hopes to use his time at NHS England and NHS Improvement to build on this and develop as a strategic thinker with the ability to translate ideas into action. His aim is to continue working as a clinical leader throughout his career and he aspires to be in a position to set vision and direction for the future departments or organisations he works in.
The fellowship scheme will challenge Kieran to approach problems that are outside his usual sphere of comfort as a clinician. He aims to consolidate his own leadership style, become an effective negotiator and develop techniques to maximise efficiency and productivity of the teams and projects he works on. He looks forward to achieving these development goals by observing and learning from inspirational senior healthcare leaders at NHS England and NHS Improvement, as well as from other fellows and colleagues who share similar goals.
