HFMA 2020: make contact and teach to raise profile

Sanjay Agrawal, a consultant in respiratory and critical care medicine at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, told the virtual conference – which is part of the HFMA annual conference – that his profession knew little about their accountancy colleagues.

‘Few of my colleagues will know there are 16,000 finance professionals in the NHS, and few will have heard of the HFMA. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could get to meet these frontline clinicians?’

Asked what the finance profession does well – and less well – and what the future holds, he said finance was good at keeping myriad processes running in the background, ensuring clinicians could deliver care to patients. However, he believed finance managers could be more visible.

Senior clinical leaders in NHS organisations meet regularly with finance professionals, but this was a small proportion of all clinicians, he said. ‘You can’t meet all of them individually, but I would say doing things like holding workshops, being in contact with staff and getting to know frontline clinicians, not just their leaders, would be a good thing.

‘It could be through shadowing clinicians or it could be by teaching them. In medicine teaching is an integral part of our role, but in finance it is not, and I don’t know why.’

Finance was not part of clinical training in the UK. He previously worked in the United States, and finance was included in the exams he had to pass before he could practise there. ‘You’re probably not going to change the General Medical Council or the royal colleges [training], but you could do it in your own organisations on an iterative basis,’ he added.

Professor Agrawal’s comments were in a session on careers, and the conference also heard the career stories of Tracy Mayes, the deputy chief financial officer at East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, and Hardev Virdee, chief financial officer at Barts Health NHS Foundation Trust.

All three speakers said following an unconventional career route should not be a barrier to progression. Mr Virdee, for example, spoke of how his early NHS posts had been in commissioning. He was told he could not move to the provider sector, yet he did. Then, when in a mental health provider, he was told that he could not move into acutes, yet he did.

The panel urged finance staff to take chances. Ms Mayes said: ‘Sometimes people’s career aspirations for you may not align with your views. If I was talking to myself when I started, I would perhaps say that I wish I listened less to some views.

‘I still aspire to becoming a CFO some day, but my confidence in my abilities was built up over years. I encourage you to take a moment each day to reflect on the value you are adding. You will surprise yourself and your confidence will grow.’

She added the NHS is an ‘open door’ that will always find a way to help staff move to where they want to be.

Mr Virdee replied to a question on how he had built up his managerial skills. ‘I always take the view that you cannot try to be somebody else. You must play on your strengths, but also recognise where there are gaps.’

Pictured clockwise from top left: Chair Owen Harkin, executive director of finance at Northern Health and Social Care Trust, Tracy Mayes, Hardev Virdee and Sanjay Agrawal