Gearing-up to meet in November
As we now look to the autumn, we can report plans for the forthcoming Leaders in Healthcare conference in November – as a part in-person, part online event – are moving on apace. More than 30 sessions across the four-day event have now been published and further sessions will be announced in the coming days as final details are confirmed.
We are delighted to confirm the four UK chief medical officers – Professor Chris Whitty, Dr Gregor Smith, Dr Frank Atherton and Sir Michael McBride – will return to Leaders in Healthcare via an online session on Thursday 11 November, where they will share their reflections on leadership throughout the past 18-months of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the challenges still to come.
Dr Paul Evans, FMLM Medical Director, said:
“This promises to be a fascinating session, following up on the insight and information the chief medical officers shared last year, and giving direct access to the way each of them has handled the crisis for their national system and contributed to the wider response from the UK.
“We learnt a great deal from their online conversation at last year’s conference, but the past 12 months have presented further complexities in the crisis and in many ways have raised more questions than answers. It will be interesting to hear their thoughts on the road ahead and the leadership needed to get there.”
The ongoing but ever-shifting pandemic and its effects on the way we have all had to work for the past 18-months has revealed an appetite across the sector to return to in-person events, at least in part. While we are mindful of the continuing public health crisis, we look forward to the opportunity to meet up, network and learn from one another at the Barbican Centre on 8-9 November. These two in-person days feature workshops and sessions on the challenges faced from leading the largest global immunisation programme in history; a panel session including Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard and Dr Bola Owolabi, among others, to address the need to build equitable systems to tackle health inequalities made worse by the pandemic; and of course the important keynote from Sir Mene Pangalos, who has led AstraZeneca’s research and development response to Covid-19 since the beginning of last year.
We are working with our conference co-producers, BMJ, to ensure the in-person event at the Barbican Centre will be carefully managed to provide the safest environment for all who attend, while all online content will be accessible to registered delegates for a further six months after the conference.
The pandemic continues to present the greatest challenge to healthcare systems and infrastructure on a global scale. FMLM’s aim, through the Leaders in Healthcare conference, is to bring together the collaborative leadership and support necessary to deal with it.
The early bird registration rate is available until 1 October.