Director of Strategy & Commissioning at NHS London

Director of Strategy & Commissioning, NHS London vision of world class healthcare

A world class city with world class health services should expect to identify and use other world class cities as comparators in developing and changing its services. Using analogies from the London Olympic development Paul Corrigan set out his parameters for long term planning for NHS services and education in London.

Paul Corrigan, Director of Strategy & Commissioning at NHS London was welcomed to the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London by the Dean of Nursing and Midwifery, Professor Anne Marie Rafferty and the Principal, Professor Rick Trainor. Before a distinguished audience which included senior NHS staff and academics from across the College as well as School staff and students he gave the Dean’s Lecture ‘World Cities and the Development of World Class Health and Health Care: The Case for London’, on Tuesday 29 January 2008.

Drawing indicators from around the globe has implications for strategic planning, commissioning of services and education of the health care workforce. World cities are characterised by the mobility and diversity of their populations and London reflects the world in microcosm. Change must be expected and the workforce needs to be supported in adapting and learning to live with transition. In a wide ranging and passionate lecture Paul Corrigan reflected on the Darzi review ‘Our NHS, our future’ and his own commitment to local services based on the needs of local communities. He envisioned an NHS workforce that constantly adapted to epidemiological change and provided world class services within the community. This has consequences for education and training and he signalled a change in commissioning to bring more focus on the extended education of existing workforce than new registrations.