9.30 – 10.00 am

Tea & coffee

10.00 – 11.30am

What lessons can be drawn from outside the NHS about the way professionals work?

• Professionals working as employees – what relevant observations and lessons can be drawn from outside the NHS?

• Professionals working together in teams – what relevant insights or observations can be drawn from organisations outside the NHS?

11.30 – 11.45am

11.45 – 1.00 pm

Organisational, professional and managerial culture in the NHS

• What does the research base tell us about the culture in the NHS?
• Is this actually what is happening – testing the research base with practitioners.

1.00 – 1.45 pm

1.45 – 3.00 pm

Relationships between healthcare professionals, managers and patients

• The continuing tension between specialisation and team work within NHS acute care; how well do clinical teams function – within and between specialties and across professions; the perception of the surgeon as "leader" and its impact on care before, during and after surgery.

• The extent to which an historical culture of mutual support/non-disparagement, continues to exist amongst healthcare professionals; the merits and de-merits of this culture.

• Doctors, nurses and other clinicians working as professional employees in a publicly funded National Health Service – the extent to which professional duties and allegiances are aligned or otherwise with the respective duties and responsibilities to patients, to employers and to taxpayers.

• The power of doctors and the nature of their freedom to decide upon and administer care. The concept of "clinical freedom" and its interaction with the values and assumptions of others – patients, nurses, the employing institution; national and local public bodies and advisory committees (e.g. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence; the Medicines Control Agency; Department of Health Advisory Committees; local ethics committees).

• Health care professionals as NHS managers – the management roles taken by clinicians, how these are changing and the relationship between duties as managers and as professionals; variations in approach between health professionals as managers.

3.00 – 3.15 pm

3.15 – 4.30 pm

Relationships between healthcare professionals, managers and patients (continued)

• The changing relationship between clinicians and managers – whether managers who are clinically qualified or those who are not.

• Professionals in the NHS: the extent to which their view of their role and the purpose of the enterprise coheres with that of managers.

• The changing relationship between patients and health care professionals – what do patients, and in the case of children, their parents, expect of health care professionals and vice versa?

• The quality of communication between patients and health care professionals and what can be done to improve it, particularly in the context of treating children.

4.30 pm