Possibilities and Pitfalls for Clinical Leadership in Improving Service Quality, Innovation and Productivity

The idea that clinical leadership is crucial for the future viability of the National Health Service has been stated many times. Cost pressures, running alongside rising demand, dictate a need for both cost effectiveness and improved service quality. It is argued that clinicians, rising to the challenge of leadership, provide the solution. But despite such emphasis and expectation, the reality of clinical leadership attempts to redesign services across the extant boundaries of the NHS has not so far been studied. In the research reported here, the nature, scope and potential for clinical leadership were all explored. The report sets out the size and nature of the challenge as found on the ground. It then goes on to explain, in detail, the kinds of skills utilised in practice by those clinicians who did manage to exercise some leadership in the effective redesign of services across boundaries