Radical Health – Digital Gathering 2023 report
Session summary from day one of our Annual Digital Gathering 2023.
On Wednesday 23 February 2023, we were joined by Dr Hilary Cottam to discuss what needs to change in health and social care. Hilary collaborates with communities and governments across the world and shared her views on transformational change in her talk on radical health. This session was chaired by Sara Redmond, Chief Officer at the ALLIANCE, and was attended by 72 individuals.
The session opened with a discussion on Hilary’s journey and how she became a strong advocate for radical change in health and social care systems. People genuinely want to make change and organisations are full of resource, yet when you actually visit and discuss with communities the reality didn’t always match. Exploring this disconnect has led much of Hilary’s work.
A strong advocate of person centred care and building support and services round the individual and communities is what is needs to support radical change in our health and social care. “I spend my time with communities listening to what is needed and asking the question, what is needed to allow us to flourish?”
In her talk, Hilary poses the question, “instead of focussing efforts on fixing the NHS, how do we create and sustain health?”
“What would happen if – instead of focusing on fixing the National Health Service, we went back to first principles and asked; how can we create and sustain health; how can we always attend to the small things…as intended by the founders of our systems.
What does it mean to flourish as opposed to simply surviving?”
You can read Hilary’s full talk on her website
We need to think differently and Hilary suggests what is needed ins a pivotal change, a decision that requires courage and a new vision that offers the possibility for transformation. Our health services are so fundamental we need to take a risk on the framework itself.
We all have a role to play in making our health and social care systems fit for the future. With change needed at all levels in the system. Hilary proposed that we can all be change makers, sparking small fires of ideas and shining a light on innovation and some of the great work happening across Scotland – a festival of what works.
“Take care of everyone, as people are the most special resource. We all need to feel part of a healthy system.”
You can find out more about Dr Hilary Cottam and her work on her website.
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