I read an article today about Lewis Hamilton. He has 360’ sensitivity..empathy in bucketloads  and feels the vibes not just of his car but all that surrounds that. Maybe he can help …

HMS NHS is a big ship to turnaround. If the Captain is to use his years of knowledge and expertise he must have the freedom to navigate the waters. Being told to get his passengers from London to New York in a straight line will not work. Storms and waves and stuff make straight line sailing impossible… Then  the elastic bands driving the engine snaps, just off the Bay of Biscay. Helicopters are scrambled to airlift the passengers. The ship stops . The costs mount. No one gets to New York on time if at all. Some passengers get to see Bilbao. Which is ok enough for omelettes and San Miguel. But they really hoped for Broadway and Times Square and bagels and a manhatten. The exhausted captain limps into port, safe in the knowledge his patients or passengers have been discharged somehow some where…. all the captain asks for is a meal, a lager and sleep . Nothing more. No crappy awards, no stupid bonus  just survival and empathy for the passengers in his care.

I entered a twitter conversation this week. Where I compared surgeons to teachers. Trying their damnedest to look after each individual. To care. To make a difference counting more than awards. One part of the tweets went like this:

Me:I am a teacher and would echo the parallel. Making a difference far outweighs any ‘badge’. Sometimes it is not even the teaching of maths but the listening smoothing the pathway. Does that apply to a clinical pathway too?

A surgeon: for me any clinical excellence award is a bonus and all the work I do over and above my busy NHS job is because I care and want to make a difference for the future.