PERSONAL SPOTLIGHT

What does your role involve?

As the clinical director for Vanguard Healthcare and Nuffield Diagnostics, I am responsible for clinical governance across both organisations, ensuring quality compliance and providing professional leadership. I also conduct incident investigations. Vanguard Healthcare has 30 mobile healthcare units, and Nuffield Diagnostics has pathology and radiology facilties in 40 hospitals. However, the role is about much more than juggling many different day-to-day responsibilities. The Nuffield Diagnostics vision, for example, is to become the leading independent provider of diagnostic services by providing the highest quality healthcare that is accessible and affordable to all – I need to keep that big picture in my head each day as it informs my individual activities.

I sit on the Nuffield Group’s clinical governance committee and the Nuffield Board’s integrated governance committee. I am the trustee director and lead director for governance of the Association for Perioperative Practice, and I am a board member and secretary of the European Operating Room Nurses Association.

How does your day start?

I am an early morning person. If I am having a day in the office, I will leave home at 6.15 am and have a swim on the way to work. The driving time to work is about 45 minutes to one hour. If I have to travel to one of the hospitals or mobile units, I will leave very early – but not before 5 am. If the journey is more than three hours, I will travel the night before.

How does the morning unfold?

I check all the e-mails that have come in on my three systems. I am disciplined about the way I handle e-mails and restrict the time I spend on them. If people send me funny e-mails, I just delete them – I can’t have them clogging up the systems. If I’m on the move I can keep a check on e-mails with my Blackberry. On average, I receive 300 to 400 e-mails a week.

Soon after I arrive in the office, I touch base with my PA, the quality manager and the governance administrator, and discuss the day.

Then I’ll probably have a coffee. Having lost a lot of weight, I have become particularly health conscious so I mainly drink water. I also believe in keeping fit. In the morning, I may have a directors’ meeting to attend and I will probably check to make sure everything is on track with the developments that are continuing with Nuffield Diagnostics. I may also meet an IT project team, and deal with paperwork.

What sort of break do you have in the middle of the day?

I have lunch on the go.

How might the afternoon shape up?

I might travel to a Nuffield Hospital to attend an incident closure meeting or a medical advisory committee meeting. It is good for me to meet the local teams on “normal” days and not just turn up when something has gone wrong. If I meet people on “normal” days, we can build up working relationships – this is very important.

I always make the best use of routes I am taking and, if possible, stop at our hospitals or mobile units along the way. I drop in on the local teams, communicate news to them and find out what’s going on.

What happens if a clinical incident occurs?

If I’m alerted to a clinical incident, all other work gets put on hold. I don’t always have to go to a site immediately, but in the event of a serious incident I do keep an overnight bag packed.

How much do you travel?

Last year I drove 50,000 miles. This year, I expect the total will be a little less.

What is the best aspect of your work?

The best aspect is the variety – every day is totally different. I like the spontaneity that’s involved and having to take different directions. I even like all the travelling.

And what is the worst aspect?

There can be frustrations, but there is no worst aspect.

At the end of the day, how do you wind down?

If I’m staying in a hotel, I’ll probably arrive between 7 pm and 8 pm. I’ll have a quick change and go to the bar for a glass of chablis before dinner. If I’m at home it’s a nice hot bath and I might phone my daughter who lives in Spain and my son who is in the Army.

Vanguard Healthcare was acquired by Nuffield Hospitals in 2004, as a pivotal step in the organisation’s strategy of working more closely with the NHS and of making independent healthcare more affordable and accessible.

Nuffield Diagnostics is investing £50 million in the next two years in providing state-of-the-art PACS/RIS systems in 40 locations, putting five mobile MRI units on the road and uprating pathology services.