Time to sit back on our laurels?

By Peter Lees

FMLM Chief Executive and Founding Senior Fellow

A momentous year for the clinical fellow schemes came to a fitting conclusion this week with an inspiring closing event. It was made inspiring by the soon-to-be clinical fellow alumni, the exceptional annual Keogh Lecture, and the in-person support of Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, himself.

The lecture was delivered by Dr Bola Owolabi, NHS England Director of Health Inequalities. A great friend of FMLM's, Bola gave an incredible tour de force on health inequalities and, as Professor Sir Stephen Powis said in his vote of thanks, it wasn’t just analysis, it was a call to arms with practical steps towards actually making a difference. Thank you, Bola!

The bulk of the afternoon celebrated the achievements of the 91 clinical fellows in a new design, which focused on the future, laced with a bit of fun. The host and sponsor perspectives were invaluable and showed continuing, major support for the schemes at the highest levels of the system. Thanks to some mischievous chairing, senior colleagues were even persuaded to share sweet recipes as analogies of the rich outcomes from the clinical fellow schemes, with the clear winner being a jubilee trifle. The post-scheme view from alumni, ranging from 10 years to the past 12 months, was inspirational and gave meaning to what we are trying to achieve.

In previous years, we have been able to attest to the calibre of medical, dental and pharmacy fellows. How much more powerful it is to attest to the calibre of large numbers of fellows from every professional discipline and see first-hand how they interact so positively and constructively. Many thanks to the largely new FMLM team, who demonstrated their abilities in running a seamless, highly successful and novel event, as well as recruiting more than 100 new clinical fellows from seven professional backgrounds, to join the seven schemes which start again in six weeks’ time.

So, is there time to sit back on our laurels? I think not! This another beginning and we have only just scratched the surface in this first year of a fully multi-professional range of programmes, not to mention our first foray into the English regions with the regional clinical leadership fellow scheme. There is much to be gained from expansion and interprofessional interaction. Then, of course, there is continuing to capitalise more on the existing collaborations with our sister schemes in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

At this rate, there will be more than one thousand clinical fellow alumni working in healthcare in three years – much of the FMLM effort going forward will be to capitalise on such a powerful resource, building on the various initiatives which started this year with valued support from the NHS England People Directorate. We need to track, support, promote, engage, employ our alumni to make the most of their talent, their enthusiasm and their new-found skills. If we do, there is no doubt that overcoming the challenges facing healthcare across the globe will be made that bit easier and, of course, the holy grail - patients and the public will get better care. There could be no better start than to heed Bola Owolabi’s powerful messages and make the difference she so eloquently described.

A recording of the FMLM Keogh Lecture 2022 by Dr Bola Owolabi will be available to members on the FMLM website, shortly.