This morning I had the privilage of listening to three very interesting talks during the 5th Annual Curriculum Conference at the Cardiff University School of Medicine. I am going to describe them briefly.<\/p>\n
The first talk was from Ruth Hussey<\/b> OBE, the Chief Medical Officer for Wales<\/a>. Ruth talked about the key challenges in Wales and went on to talk about the four key principles of prudent health. Prudent healthcare<\/a> is an important concept underpinning the planning and development for the NHS in Wales. I think there is an\u00a0element of cost saving but there there does also seem to be a genuine attempt to change clinical care in a way that can become more empowering for patients.<\/p>\n Ruth Hussey\u2019s four key principles of prudent healthcare:<\/p>\n The second talk was by Dr<\/strong> Chris Jones<\/b><\/a>\u00a0CBE, Chairman of Cwm Taf University Health Board. Chris’ passion and enthusiasm was impressive. He talked about\u00a0Keir Hardie University Health Park<\/a>\u00a0in Merthyr.\u00a0I really liked Chris\u2019 point about the community and the role of the community. He talked about a \u2018patient volunteer\u2019 he had met at\u00a0the Health Park and gave an inspiring quote from the patient:\u00a0“It is an honour to give something back to an NHS that has taken care of me and mine.”\u00a0<\/span>In my opinion, community is one of the key strengths of Wales. My personal experience is that Welsh people work well together for each other. This makes Wales a very special place, I believe.<\/p>\n Chris also described a holy trinity of teaching, research and practice. He cautioned us about creating imbalances between these three things. He described his\u00a0ambition: let’s teach, research and practice together. He challenged all of us in the Medical School with the question:<\/span>\u00a0can we give the knowledge back?<\/span><\/p>\n The third talk was delivered by Professor<\/strong> Val Wass<\/b>, Emeritus Professor of Medical Education, Keele Universty. She talked about three key factors affecting the future of medical education:<\/p>\n She recommended reading an article from the Lancet entitled:\u00a0Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world<\/a>.\u00a0I think a key message was that we should encourage empathy and self knowledge in our medical students<\/strong> in order to promote a more open consultation with patients. Very interesting.<\/p>\n In summary, this was a very enjoyable and thought provoking session. My thanks and congratulations to the Conference team: Julie Browne, Caitlin Golaup, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Suzanne Morse and Dr Steve Riley.<\/p>\n\n
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