Comment / Your safe space

I often wonder, jokingly, whether we should rename the association something like ‘the Oasis’. This might better capture the association’s role in allowing professionals to come together, network and learn. There’s such positivity among colleagues when they get together, however difficult things look back at the office. 

The HFMA provides the glue in the system, the place where we can leave the challenges of work aside and learn how we can make ourselves and our organisations even better. To that extent, the HFMA is an oasis of calm.

We are just starting on our nationwide tour of a long list of branch conferences and I hope you’ve been able to get along to one. The local branch events remain our connecting point with members. Our brave president Mark Orchard will be the first one since 2009 to attend all 13 if he can navigate the country’s transport system.  If he achieves it (and I’d be surprised if he didn’t), it will be the fulfilment of his vision ‘everyone counts’ – a clear conviction on Mark’s part to connect with all the members.

The end of the grand tour is the annual conference in December, the largest event of its kind in healthcare finance.  We’re proud of our conference – the format and venue have served us well over the years. However, we can’t stand still. I’d like in future to be able to get the price down to make it more accessible and I’d like to continue to develop the programme.  

We’re trying a different format on the Thursday this year, with shorter, punchier presentations designed to showcase ‘healthcare today’ and ‘healthcare tomorrow’.  Look out for details on this. And at the end of that day, we’ll get a political briefing from BBC political editor Laura Kuennsberg, keeping up the tradition of similar presentations in past years from Andrew Neil, Michael Portillo and Andrew Marr.   

On the Friday, to send everyone home energised, we’ve got Olympic medal winning triathletes, the Brownlee brothers. People ask why we have sports stars at the conference. To get to the top in professional athletics, you not only need talent and ability, but spectacular levels of motivation, dedication and energy.
You can’t say we don’t need that in healthcare finance! We can all look forward to leaving conference motivated to put in winning performances at the office.

I’ll finish by paying tribute to a remarkable person who’s leaving the UK for pastures new – last year’s president Shahana Khan (pictured), finance director at George Eliot NHS Trust. Shahana and husband Najam are relocating to the Middle East. 

I work closely with each president, and I found Shahana to be both supportive and encouraging, as well as having a clear focus for her ‘Step up’ themed year. It was an important year for the association as we developed our masters-level qualifications while conducting all our usual education, policy and communications work. And Shahana really connected with members as she went around the country and in the US. 

So, I’m sure you will join with me in wishing her and her husband all the best as they take on their new challenge. I’m sure we will catch up again in the future, and we look forward to that.