Miss Sunreet Randhawa
After graduating from her medical and intercalated BSc degrees at the University of Birmingham in 2007, Sunreet has trained as a surgeon in general and breast surgery. During her training she has maintained a keen interest in research and developing divisional level strategies to improve coordination and patient flow within secondary care. Her research interests include prognostic tools in cancer surgery, including metabonomics, data analytics and digital stratification strategies, which she researched during her PhD at Imperial College. Sunreet has had the opportunity to work with pioneers in digital transformation and innovation in surgery, such as Professor Shafi Ahmed.
Throughout her career Sunreet has shown a strong enthusiasm in teaching, being an honorary clinical lecturer at Imperial College, having been a course leader on an MSc for laparoscopic surgery at QMUL and most recently has been involved in the online delivery of the Whipps Cross FRCS course.
Sunreet is motivated to advance systems and processes to optimise patient care and enact strategic change developing a more progressive, unified health service, with fewer barriers to care. Sunreet has a genuine belief that digital services are underutilised within the NHS, especially in secondary and tertiary care services where such innovations could play key steps in improving patient safety, flow and communication between services. Most recently she has been involved in work to evaluate hardware systems needed by junior doctors to improve efficiency. She is excited to be collaborating with senior healthcare leaders at NHS Digital and colleagues on the FMLM scheme.
Reason for applying for the scheme
Sunreet believes medical leadership is multi-faceted throughout the NHS and is central to achieving high-quality healthcare. As a surgeon, Sunreet leads inter-disciplinary teams to work toward a shared vision with the patient, addressing concerns and providing equitable treatment options within the NHS. She has been involved in divisional level leadership, setting up strategies and protocols to streamline services across her local trust. These have included an expedited laparoscopic cholecystectomy pathway to meet NICE guidelines, evaluating and improving surgical consent processes and setting up emergency pathways for accessing breast surgery services.
Different trusts across the UK face identical challenges, yet there are no national initiatives to collectively address these. For instance, delays in accessing secondary care services by community practitioners, trusts developing individual patient education strategies for common conditions/procedures and implementing electronic healthcare systems. Leadership to spearhead initiatives at a national level for these would enable a coordinated and efficient healthcare system. Sunreet is motivated to develop corporate level strategies to improve coordination within health care services and reduce barriers to accessing timely care, an increasing challenge in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. A position in this prestigious scheme gives Sunreet the prospect to improve a broader range of skills and strategic thinking. This would complement her vast knowledge, experience and clinical ‘frontline’ expertise with the view of being involved in prominent leadership roles in the future and enacting strategic change.
