Walking up from the station, the Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust has a rather grand frontage. David Oliver, the consultant geriatrician who organised my day, guided me, by phone, round to the modern entrance and bought me a coffee. It was shortly before 8am and, on the hour, we dived into the maelstrom of the clinical […]
Category: Martin McShane
Martin McShane: Champions for change
Let me tell you a story. I recently had the opportunity to listen to a woman whose mother developed vascular dementia. This is what I heard. A stroke caused expressive and receptive dysphasia along with a change in behaviour so, when stressed, her mother would become aggressive. Despite that, she lived in her own home […]
Martin McShane: New job
I got a new job last week. My daughter was appearing in Annie at the Retford Majestic Theatre. She belongs to the Mini-Operatic Bunch (MOB), the junior branch of the Retford Operatic Society and each year the kids (upper age limit 18) put on a show which the public pay to see. I was recruited […]
Martin McShane: Walk the talk
Sometimes, it becomes apparent that what we have been talking about for so long is actually beginning to happen. Over the last few weeks we have been preparing for our Annual Accountability Review with the SHA. We have had our monthly cluster board meeting. We also had a meeting with the acute trust, looking at […]
Martin McShane: Letting go
One aspect of my job that I have enjoyed over the last few years has been engaging with the public. It has never been dull. When I first arrived in Lincolnshire we did a lot of work, talking with the public and professionals about the principles we should use for commissioning services. This became a […]
Martin McShane: Win, win, win?
In the last week, I have managed to catch up with two old friends who are the sort of GPs who I would be delighted to look after me or my family. As I listened to them both, I empathised with the pressures general practitioners face. On top of the burden of more and more […]
Martin McShane: Ch-Ch-Changes
Ch,ch,changes. The next couple of months are going to see a sea change in the management of commissioning across England. The appointments to the NHS Commissioning Board (NHSCB) sectors are being made. Appointing to these four posts will allow the wave of appointments to the local offices, to be renamed as local area teams, to be […]
Martin McShane: 80:20
We are working through trying to understand exactly how commissioning support (CSS) will work with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). At a recent time out the lead manager for the CSS presented on the progress being made with Greater East Midlands CSS (GEM). They highlighted the scale of work that is required with the 277 tasks […]
Martin McShane: Large scale change
Over the last few weeks my reading and listening has made me consider whether we are at a crossroads in understanding and agreeing the purpose and nature of healthcare. Let me start with this quote from the evaluation of the 16 integrated care pilots that were supported by the Department of Health: “Over the past […]
Martin McShane: A new dynamic?
The political ambiguity is, mostly, resolved. Very shortly, appointments will be made to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). At the same time appointments will be made to the local arm of the NHS Commissioning Board (now to be known as the “Area”), the NHS Commissioning Board Sectors (formally known as SHA Clusters), and Commissioning Support services. […]