Alumni story / The intrinsic relationship between financial management and patient care

Peter Kullar is an academic clinical lecturer and an ear, nose and throat surgeon. He is currently undertaking a fellowship in neurotology and skull base surgery at Stanford University, USA. Peter studied the HFMA Advanced Higher Diploma in Healthcare Business and Finance, finishing his study In April 2022.

In 2021, as I looked ahead to the end of my clinical training and started to consider my future plans, I realised that, as strange as it sounds, I didn’t have a solid understanding of the NHS as a wider organisation. I had undergone extensive clinical training, and am no stranger to studying for qualifications, but as clinicians we often only work in very small sections of the health service and my exposure to the financial and management aspects of the NHS had been almost non-existent.

I knew that if I wanted to potentially take more leadership roles in the future it would be important to have a deeper understanding of how the NHS works. Studying for the HFMA advanced higher diploma in healthcare business and finance has been key to help me getting that knowledge.

I wasn’t specifically motivated by gaining a formal qualification, but I knew it would be good to have a level of formal training to evidence my learning. In addition, I knew that having a structured type of learning would help me understand what was a completely new subject area for me, and would also ensure that I could keep up with the level of work that is required and balance it alongside my clinical and research duties. The HFMA’s module content and format of learning was perfect for this.

As someone who had zero experience of NHS finance prior to this qualification, a lot of the content didn’t come naturally to me. However, I found each of the modules interesting and useful in their own way. The personal effectiveness and leadership module in particular was useful for my day-to-day practice. In fact, while I was studying the module, I was supporting with rota reforms to support our Covid-19 response and was responsible for managing a group of junior doctors. Having access to some of the academic studies and the resources as part of my study was very useful in real time to lead, motivate and manage my team throughout this extremely challenging period.

The tutors were all fantastic. Prior to starting my study, I knew it would require a mental shift to approach the NHS from a completely different perspective. However, throughout each module I was able to rely on the support and the knowledge of the tutors and as a result I really gained a much more holistic view of each topic and learned a lot more than was covered in the actual core module content.

That said, I won’t pretend my experience was all plain sailing. I don’t think you can underestimate the amount of study that is required to pass this qualification and while I knew it would be a commitment before enrolling, I perhaps didn’t realise the amount of work that would be involved. Fitting in the study was an ongoing challenge that required vigilant time-management throughout, but the end result was very worthwhile, and the learning I took, both from the modules, the tutors, and my fellow learners, has certainly changed the way I look at my job and the way I think about how my job works in the wider context of the NHS.

NHS financial management is not something that clinicians are taught, and I think that is quite a shame in many ways. Understanding how NHS finances work and understanding how value affects patient care is intrinsic to how we provide services. Now I have finished my study, I can already see the impact it has had on the decisions I make as a clinician. It has changed the way I practice medicine in many ways, and for that reason alone it has been a valuable experience that I would certainly recommend to others. 

Click here to find out more about all of the HFMA's qualifications, including a designated pathway to earn an Executive MBA from the University of Northampton.