Healthcare in a post Covid world: nurturing space for quality care

Description

By any reckoning, many of the problems facing health care  are not new.  They have been around  for a long time,  including a prolonged spell of austerity, the effects of which have  never been audited in a systematic manner.  Increasing demand and expectations, rising costs of technological advances and treatments  as well as  staff shortages against a background of reduced funding have led to increasing  challenges for staff and organisations alike.

And then COVID 19 intervened, with what has been described as the most disruptive event to have affected healthcare at a global level. The effects on staff  are well known including   illness, workload pressures, exhaustion and  burnout whilst the impact on patients and the public including substantial loss of lives, as well as the documented effects of Long Covid.  The concurrent   cost of living crisis and  industrial disputes   have added  additional pressures on health care staff, their organisations and patients alike.

It is now  opportune  for healthcare organisations to refocus attention to engage and sustain  organisation and system wide conversations with staff and their communities as to what health and social care should look and feel like in our changing world?  Moreover it is pertinent to energise  all  our  staff   to  build compassion, empathy, and resilience.  It is also timely  for Doctors, Nurses and AHP colleagues,  in tandem with their organisations  to re-imagine  and co-create what caring in a Covid/Post Covid  will require of them and of  their part and role   in helping to create a kind and compassionate service to increase job satisfaction and quality of patient care.

To paraphrase the poet and leadership coach David Whyte, “ a real conversation always contain an invitation. You are inviting other persons to share with you who they are, what they want, and what they can bring to the task at hand.”

In essence, this e-book is about using a leader’s  story as a conversation  piece  and an  ” invitation   and co-action to enrich  the working lives of  staff  to deliver quality patient care, via deeper and ongoing conversations and co-action ,”  which is as relevant to Northumbria as it is to Newcastle, as it is to the wider NHS with a focus on  issues including:

• Strengthening   belonging at the front line based  on our values;
• Nurturing empathy, compassion, kindness and resilience  for  our staff;
• Working together to care for our staff, so that we can care better for our patients and our communities;
•  Enhancing  working together,  team work and   provider collaboration inside out;
• Encouraging quality improvement via leadership at all levels
• And living our  value proposition whilst delivering efficient and better  patient care.

Apart from the e-book element, Sir James would provide  a number of video podcasts  additions on an ongoing basis ,to  enrich the conversations and deepen commitment.

About Sir James  Mackey

Sir James has  a long and distinguished  career in health care which comprise a spell which began in 2003 to 2023, when he was Chief Executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, during which time (2015 to 2017) he was Chief Executive of NHS Improvement on secondment. He was knighted in 2019 for services to healthcare.

From September 2021 to March 2025, he was National Director of Elective Recovery at NHS England. And from January 2024 to March 2025,  Sir James  was appointed as Chief Executive of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He  was also Chair of the NHS Customer Board for Procurement and Supply but stood down on taking up this post at NHS England.

Sir James took up the post of Chief Executive Officer  of NHS England on 1 April 2025.