The road to independence - clinical leadership outside the NHS

Dr Richard Jenkins is currently group medical director at One Medicare, a major service provider to GPs and primary care facilities. Starting his own career as a GP, he has extensive experience in leadership and management both here in the UK and also in the USA. He has an interest in learning about leadership from outside the healthcare field, and staunchly believes that the public and independent sectors can and should learn from one another.

In his webinar Richard looked at clinical leadership from the perspective of the independent sector and gave an outline of One Medicare’s approach to leadership. He started off by outlining how a number of factors, including section 75 of the Health Act and a change in political willpower, have altered GP practice. A change in out-of-hours practice was the first sign of the independent sector being involved in primary care. The new environment has meant there is scope for change; for instance, the barriers between care sectors are falling away, with increased opportunities for innovation and “doing things differently”. He reflected how organizations will have to be more “nimble on their feet” as, in his experience, the independent sector works faster than the public sector.