From the Archives: The NHS — From Vocational Calling to Common Purpose

Brian Gerrish (0:34)

Good afternoon to the UK Column viewers and listeners. I've come back in the studio for an interview this afternoon with a gentleman, Duncan White.

Duncan has sent me a lot of very interesting information in some emails plus an attached document. And he's got a fascinating background, which I'm going to get him to tell us a little more about that. But what we're going to do today is at least start off with having a bit of a discussion about the NHS and some of the problems in the NHS. So without any more to do, Duncan, thank you very much for joining us today.

Duncan White (1:15)

Pleasure.

Brian Gerrish (1:18)

You were kind enough to email in. So I'm just going to ask, how did you discover the UK Column in the first place?

Duncan White (1:28)

Ah, well, some years ago I signed up because I came across it from colleagues who advised me about it. And then more recently, I joined a conversation group who are very, very keen on UK Column and its news service and put me in touch with one of your correspondents, Debbie, and we went from there.

Brian Gerrish (1:56)

Yeah, excellent. Okay, thank you very much for that. It's always interesting to hear where people find us. And they're often interesting stories around that little saga. But I admit that at lunchtime, I just walked up the road from the UK Column studio where there's a really excellent little food wagon. And as I was waiting for my toasted sandwich, one of the guys in the queue said, you're Brian? And I said, yes. And he said, well, I'd just like to say that I watched the UK Column News with my work colleagues and all my family watch as well. So he was in one of the one of the companies, the industrial units, just a few hundred yards up the road from the UK Column. And as I said to him, it's always quite a boost when people do this because you think, yes, we are actually getting out and achieving an audience. So thank you for doing the same there, Duncan.

Now let's have a look. You sent me some interesting stuff about your background. You said you were a senior technical adviser to the UK home care sector for nearly five years. And you've worked on several working groups with the Care Quality Commission, the National Institute of Healthcare Excellence and Skills for Care.

You've worked on some task force projects at the Department of Health and Social Care. You've also got an involvement with a motoring organization, which I've lost that one at the moment. We'll come back on to that. And I believe you're also involved in a charity. So tell us a little bit about yourself, set the scene for our viewers and listeners today.

Duncan White (3:44)

Okay, well, I started off as a registered nurse in both mental health and acute services. And inevitably, the career path takes you into management.

And I worked my way up to executive level in both acute and psychiatry before joining a private enterprise rescuing bankrupt nursing homes and turning around failing nursing homes before I embarked on a career with a City of London consultancy, working in health care systems across the 10 countries, all four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, plus six overseas projects and spent a couple of years in the Gulf. And on returning from the Gulf, I wasn't quite ready for retirement. So I worked as an advisor in home care services to a trade association. And that took me into working groups with the Department of Health, Business, Enterprise Innovation and Skills, working on things like implementing the Care Act and the Modern Slavery Act. And I worked also with the Care Quality Commission, Skills for Care, and various other project groups. That gave me a very great understanding, a broad understanding of how the bureaucracy behind the healthcare system works.

And since retirement, I've been working with a couple of charities.

Brian Gerrish (5:17)

Okay. Thank you for that. And I believe that you've also done some time with the army. Is that right?

Duncan White (5:24)

Yes. I was commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps as a nursing officer, and spent 12 years in front line roles there. I never worked in army hospitals. I was always working with the infantry, tank regiments, and front line formations. So I had a very lively involvement in places like Germany, Holland, Cyprus.

Brian Gerrish (5:53)

Okay. All right. Thank you very much for that. Well, that's quite a spread of experience in a range of different sectors. And I can see that that puts you in a very good place for commenting on some of the things that you've seen happening in those particular areas.