Fostering talent and building teams is the key to the future of the NHS – BAOMS Rob Bentley
28 June 2022
One of the key sessions at this year’s British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) took a deep dive into learning from the pandemic, and how that can be applied to protect and foster a prospering NHS into the future – and why developing the leader of tomorrow will be essential in that process.
Chairing the debate on the final day of his ASM, President Rob Bentley said a strategic framework for the NHS and developing the right leadership and talent, coupled with equality for all of access is essential.
“We need good teams that have solidarity, sociability and unity because of the fragmentation caused by the pandemic…..It’s all about developing partnerships in and through others.”
He used his experience of developing preparedness and resilience in the south east to illustrate, and threw out a challenge to colleagues: “It’s your health service and you have a chance to influence it.”
The baton of human factors and the challenge thrown out by covid was taken on by Professor Kevin Fong, consultant anaesthetist at UCHL and National Clinical Adviser in Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response for Covid19.
“We need to learn the lessons of what happened in the pandemic,” he said, but added that it wasn’t possible to measure capacity just by counting. He explained that you had to look at the gap in demand and how a stretched workforce could fill the gap.
He said it wasn’t about “the number of beds, but the wellbeing of the workforce”. He was clearly saying that if you don’t sustain the wellbeing of the workforce at all levels you will not be able to fill the gaps in care.
Prof Fong gave a revealing illustration when he explained that at the height of the pandemic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) figures for health staff were at 46.5%, compared to military personnel, who had served in Afghanistan, where 17% returned with PTSD.
He added that “we risk a public health emergency on the back of the covid emergency” if learning is not put into place”.
Prof Fong said that you need to retain your workforce and invest at scale in that workforce – this would it will improve patient care and save the NHS money. How could this be done? By using and preserving organisational memory and the new found agility, he said.
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