eNews July 2013: Spotlight on...Dr Tim Trebble
Dr Tim Trebble is a consultant gastroenterologist working for the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust; he was the clinical lead for the Portsmouth Medical Management (PiMM’s) project, an innovative project aimed at introducing new systems of managing clinicians and clinical performance. He developed an interest in healthcare management and quality improvement as a specialist registrar (SpR), using the evidence-based principles derived from his time in biomedical research. This has led to publications in Lean Thinking redesign, patient expectations and priorities, the virtual ward as an innovative system redesign for chronically ill high dependency patients and, most recently, performance based systems of appraising doctors. Further publications are planned from the PiMMs project.
Dr Trebble has a young family - including an inquisitive two-year-old – and in his spare time he enjoys ceramics, travel and the cinema. A committed supporter of the NHS, he talks to FMLM about the PiMMs project and his views on current and future medical leadership and management.
Describe your role in one sentence
I work on the human relationship approach to healthcare management – or, to put it another way, I look for innovative solutions to system management problems with a focus on helping staff to “work smarter, not harder”, through empowering and facilitating.
What are your main challenges and how do you overcome them?
The key challenge is one of confidence. Doctors in general, and particularly as medical managers, need to gain the confidence of NHS managers and politicians – to show they have the ability to manage, including managing complex organizations, and also show that they have the correct temperament for the task.
Another challenge is that doctors are a highly diverse but motivated group of individuals – it can therefore be a complex and challenging role to manage them effectively, understand their motivations and keep them engaged. Unfortunately, I think the only people who can do that effectively are other doctors.