Conversations with policy makers - with Dame Andrea Leadsom MP
Release Date: 07/19/2023
Child health and climate change: Nepal
RCPCH Podcasts
In this final episode of our podcast series on the changing climate, this mountainous country is seeing extreme temperature fluctuations, landslides and air pollution, endangering communities and impacting healthcare. But, there are some lessons around adaptation, as our guests who work or have volunteered in Nepal explain. Dr Bernadette O’Hare hosts a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation with Dr Jamun Singh, a Nepalese paediatrician, and Dr Rashmi D’Souza, a UK-based paediatrician and Heather Watson, a UK-based paediatric nurse, who volunteered with Dr Singh in our Global Links...
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Child health and climate change: Canada
RCPCH Podcasts
Floods, heatwaves and wildfires have become increasingly common across Canada. And as retired paediatrician Dr Julian Pleydell-Pearce explains in this episode of our climate change series, this makes a profound impact on the lives of children and young people - and the way health services are delivered. In episode two of this three-part series, Professor Bernadette O’Hare speaks with guest Julian, who worked as a paediatrician in Canada before his recent retirement. Julian shares his firsthand experiences of how shifting weather patterns has had a drastic impact on the lives of children and...
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Child health and climate change: Uganda
RCPCH Podcasts
Less predictable weather in the past several years in this east African country have made it increasingly difficult to grow crops, leading to food shortages and skyrocketing prices. There are broader consequences for children's health, too, as Eva Odongpiny, a pharmacist in Uganda, discusses with us. These include an increased vulnerability to diseases like HIV and cholera, air pollution and water scarcity. This is the first episode in our three-part series on the impacts of climate change on children's health around the word. Host, Dr Bernadette O’Hare, chair of the international workstream...
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Patient safety 5 – The impact of healthcare inequality on patient safety
RCPCH Podcasts
Health inequalities are widening in paediatrics. Those that are more disadvantaged experience more safety issues whilst in health care. If we can make our healthcare systems more equitable for the children and young people we can for, they will be safer in our care. In episode 5 of our series on paediatric patient safety, we speak with Dr Helen Stewart, Dr Cian Wade and Dr Mimi Malhotra to explore how patient safety and health inequalities are inextricably linked. Tackling healthcare inequalities can improve safety and vice versa. Dr Stewart shares her knowledge and experience as...
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Patient safety 4 - Involving children, young people and their families in making healthcare safer
RCPCH Podcasts
It is imperative that children and young people are central to the co-design and co-production of our patient safety improvement interventions. In this episode, we speak with Dr Jane Runnacles, consultant paediatrician at St. George's Hospital, and Dr Victoria Dublon, paediatric diabetes consultant at the Royal Free Hospital. Both are champions of improvement work that puts the young person and their needs first. As Jane and Victoria describe, involving children, young people and their families in improvement work improves the experience and outcome for all involved. There are fantastic...
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Patient safety 3 - How do we improve how we learn from harm?
RCPCH Podcasts
It is not enough just to collect data on harm occurring to children in healthcare settings. We need the data to be robust, comparable across the NHS and for it to be transformed into effective, meaningful changes in outcome. In episode 3 of our series on paediatric patient safety, we speak with Dr Damian Roland, a paediatric emergency medicine clinician scientist and head of service for the Children's Emergency Department at Leicester Royal Infirmary. As Damian discusses on the podcast, in order to learn from harm and prevent it occurring again we need to collect data and investigate what is...
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Patient safety 2 - If we are psychologically safe, children are safer in our care
RCPCH Podcasts
Psychological safety in healthcare settings is the condition in which you feel included, safe to learn, safe to contribute and safe to challenge the status quo - without fear of being embarrassed, marginalised or punished. And it's an essential foundation in building a safety culture. Individually, feeling psychologically safe improves performance and innovation, while feeling unsafe reduces productivity and harms retention. In a highly productive team, it is about feeling safe to take risks, to learn from each other and to feel resilient and able to tackle the difficult and varying challenges...
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Patient safety 1 - How can we build a culture of safety in paediatric healthcare?
RCPCH Podcasts
Healthcare is inherently risky and so as child health professionals we need to make patient safety a priority in all our actions. We need to think about safety all the time. In episode 1 of our series on paediatric patient safety, we speak with Dr Peter Lachman, who develops and delivers programmes for clinical leaders in quality improvement at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin. As Peter explains on the podcast, we healthcare professionals need to know patient safety theory - but, more importantly, we need to know how to apply it, drive improvement and create a workplace culture...
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The state of digital child health today - an interview with Professor Sam Shah
RCPCH Podcasts
Richard Burley, Executive Director of Digital talks with Professor Shah about how digital technology can support child health, and how paediatricians can embrace it - with a dose of healthy scepticism. Professor Sam Shah is Chief Medical Strategy Officer at men's health company, Numan, and Honorary Lecturer at University College London's Global Business School for Health. He spoke at RCPCH Conference 2023 with a session titled, 'Could healthcare technology address the challenges in child health? Richard Burley here at the College was fortunate to be in the audience and invited Sam to discuss...
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Shift the dial on climate change and health inequalities
RCPCH Podcasts
Climate change poses an existential risk to child health and is exacerbating health inequalities. But, paediatricians can play an important role in sharing information and advocating for action. Dr Helen Stewart and Dr Alex Lemaigre introduce the College’s new toolkit for paediatricians. Our first tool helps you understand how climate change impacts on children and young people’s health and exacerbates health inequalities. And our second equips you to influence climate change policy locally, regionally and nationally. Alex and Helen talk about why paediatricians have a role in addressing...
info_outlineIn a first for our podcasts, we delve into the world of government and parliament. RCPCH President Camilla Kingdon speaks with Dame Andrea Leadsom MP, Conservative Member of Parliament for South Northamptonshire about her experiences of advocating for infant and child health.
Dame Andrea wants every baby to have the best start in life - a message shared by the College. She chaired the Government's Early Years Healthy Development Review and its March 2021 report, The best start for life, a vision for the 1001 critical days, outlines areas for action to improve the health outcomes of all babies in England, including new Family Hubs.
She now chairs the Start for Life Unit, a team of civil servants tasked with implementing the review's recommendations.
Dame Andrea talks with Camilla about her experiences of championing infant and child health in Parliament, and why she's so passionate and focused on this early period of life. Camilla asks how paediatricians can use their voice to support policy change, particularly where there are competing priorities, and how to consider poverty's impact on child health outcomes.
Ensuring decision-makers introduce the best public policy for children and young people is an important part of our work at RCPCH. We engage regularly with Ministers, senior civil servants, MPs, Lords and advisers on a wide range of matters. On some occasions, like this one, that will mean engaging with individuals from specific political parties. However, we never endorse political parties or movements, and work with representatives of all parties equally and that remains the case with this podcast.
We are grateful to Dame Andrea for sharing her views as someone with a central role in government policymaking on early years. Do keep an eye out on our podcasts for future conversations with policymakers from across the political spectrum.
Links from the podcast
Family Hubs and Start for Life programme (GOV.UK)
The best start for life: a vision for the 1,001 critical days (GOV.UK)
Rt Hon. Dame Andrea Leadsom website