Sophia Christie
Sophia Christie is chief executive of Birmingham East and North PCT.
CommentWired in: digital service delivery can put healthcare into the home
The success of new technologies in major sectors such as retail and travel has put control and convenience in the hands of the consumer. Why then, asks Sophia Christie, is the health sector not thinking “digital by default”?
CommentSophia Christie on a crumbling model of healthcare
Much health policy is about achieving a balance. A common tension is that between the popularity of “local” and the necessity of “strategic”.
CommentSophia Christie on getting the best from GPs
Successive governments have attempted to engage primary care in commissioning in recognition of the sector’s vital role in demand management.
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Sophia Christie: in the NHS, information is power
“When I started in 2006… my health was of low standard, I was overweight and had low self esteem due to several strokes.
CommentSophia Christie on making an impact on male mortality
I can’t live without my burgers, my chips or the doner meat. I know they are bad, I can see the fat dripping out of it…
CommentSophia Christie on NICE and lifesaving myths
Last year, journalist Adam Wishart approached me about taking part in a television documentary, The Price of Life, which aired on BBC2 last week.
CommentSophia Christie on NHS crisis and opportunity
An emerging policy consensus looks to innovation to save the NHS. The context is an emerging “perfect storm” of financial crisis, global warming, obesity, longer lives with greater dependency and fewer working age people to pay taxes.
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Sophia Christie on the next stage review and quality
Perhaps the most important contribution of the next stage review was to put quality and safety back firmly among the NHS's priorities.
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Sophia Christie on becoming a world class commissioner
Every primary care trust is participating in the first stage of the world class commissioning assurance process. World class commissioning is not the little brother of foundation trust development, or even Big Brother, although it can seem like that.
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Sophia Christie on the NHS and the credit crunch
We seem to be officially heading into recession. Even if it is shallow and short, this will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable.
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Sophia Christie on management lessons from literature
While the 1980s saw an explosion of books promising 'the management secrets of...', War and Peace seems to have been sadly neglected. But Tolstoy's commentary is instructive in the context of current discussions about the next stage review.
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Sophia Christie on the Naomi Campbell effect
At a recent House of Commons gathering to discuss the role of commissioning in delivering improvement, there was silence on the application of world class standards to the commissioning of primary care.
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Sophia Christie on public health leadership
For much of the last 20 years, public health has faced a huge challenge of marginalisation. A state active model of health was always going to struggle under a government that denied the concept of society.
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Sophia Christie on world class organisations
The assurance process for world class commissioning is developing apace but with no national development programme, many in primary care trusts are wondering where to focus attention.
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Sophia Christie on tackling the digital divide
Economic growth is increasingly driven by the skill of the local workforce and more specifically confidence and competence in using digital technologies.
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Sophia Christie on fighting change
Besieged by change, senior managers in the NHS are adept at resisting it while apparently leading it.
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Sophie Christie on the Lucentis drug controversy
The latest media celebration of how terrible the NHS is gathers pace. The press has been reporting that people are going blind because they are being refused a drug (as opposed to going blind because they have a degenerative disease). Yet the fourth estate seems to be missing a far ...
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Sophia Christie on managing cultures in the health service
Naturally an optimist, I always like to start the new year reflecting on emerging opportunities. Primary care trusts had a lot to get excited about in the last few months of 2007 with the development and launch of world class commissioning. The experience has been reminiscent of the publication last ...
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Sophie Christie on the holy grail of NHS policy
NHS policy seems populated by some remarkably persistent ideas that pop up every decade or so
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Sophia Christie on collective commissioning
Commissioning needs to be reformed and strengthened at every level, writes Sophia Christie