A wide-ranging health and care leadership review has been announced by the Government, which aims to “drive up efficiency and improve outcomes”. The process will be led by retired vice chief of the defence staff general Sir Gordon Messenger, who led last year’s mass community Covid-19 testing project in Liverpool and has provided advice to the Government on its planning of the air travel ‘traffic light’ system. NHS representatives reporting to Health Secretary Sajid Javid will be led by Dame Linda Pollard, Chair of Leeds Teaching Hospital.
It is being billed as the biggest shake up of NHS leadership since the 1983 Griffiths report, which led to a move away from team based “consensus management” towards a more clearly defined general management structure in the NHS, according to the BMJ.
The review’s mission is to “improve processes and strengthen the leadership of health and social care in England”. General Messenger will also be focussing on how to develop the pipeline of future health leaders, training and spreading best examples of strong leadership.
The review comes as the Government invests £36 billion into health and care as the NHS deals with the care backlogs from the pandemic and winter COVID-19 infections. Recommendations from the review team may put into practice rapidly, “to make every penny of taxpayer’s money count”.
Results from the review will be provided to the Health Secretary early next year.
