The role of healthcare manager is usually office-based, either at a clinical practice establishment, for example, a hospital or a standalone office complex such as those occupied by Primary Care Trusts (PCTS), Medical Deaneries, Strategic Health Authority (SHA) or the Department of Health in London.
Many managerial jobs involve some travel, mainly for meetings or training, this being more frequent in senior positions. And those meetings might involve one or several different groups of people:
- Other members of the same management team, a hospital team say
- Members of a different management team, for example, SHA
- Clinical practitioners such as clinical directors of departments such as Surgery or Diagnostics , medical director and consultants
- Outside organisations such as Trade Unions, Consultants, medical products manufacturers, service suppliers for example, cleaning contractors
- Internal staff bodies such as the local consultants negotiating committee (LNC)
However, a manager’s role in both the NHs and private healthcare providers such as Spire Hospitals is not just about meetings. Most will have major ‘hands on’ managerial duties to perform, for example
- Reviewing periodic performance information and data and comparing results with budgets and targets. Carry out variance analysis for improvement potential
- Daily informal discussions with clinical and non-clinical staff
- Implementing and/or modifying health care programmes in accordance with approved NHS or organisational business plans
- Facilitating staff development by a continual process of planning, monitoring, support and assessment.
- Participate, develop and implement systems to support the introduction of Clinical Governance particularly as it relates to the monitoring of standards of health care and the promotion of evidence based practice
- Contribute to the management and assessment of specialist and clinical service contracts
- Manage all role-defined health care facilities, amenities and associated resources, including contracts medical equipment, supplies and pharmaceutical budgets, ensuring the most cost effective methods are employed
Compared with the total of healthcare managers there are in the NHS, very few will get to manage their whole domain such as a hospital. There will only be one Chief Executive who sees the ‘big picture’ and he will have myriads of managers under him in stratified layers like a Christmas tree. In essence, most NHS managers work in defined disciplines
- Clinical management
- Estates and facilities management
- Finance
- General management
- Health informatics management
- Human Resources or HR (previously called personnel)
- Operations
- Strategy & Planning
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