Imelda McDermott (@imcdermott) — Bluesky Profile

1 month ago

🌟 HSR UK is recruiting for new Trustees! We're looking for 3 new voluntary Trustees to help shape the future of HSR. If you care about improving NHS and social care services, we’d love to hear from you!

🗓️ Apply by 17 Feb, 5pm

👉 Apply here: www.charityjob.co.uk/volunteer-jo...

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3 months ago

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Is "Taskification" a solution to workforce crisis?
In this paper, we problematise the term, tracing its roots to Taylorism, and argue that applying manufacturing logic to healthcare risks fragmenting patient care.
doi.org/10.1177/1355...
#GeneralPractice #Taskification #Workforce

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5 months ago

Organisational Behaviour in Health Care (OBHC) Conference 2026 Submit your paper You are invited to submit a paper for the Organisational Behaviour in Health Care (OBHC) Conference 2026. The conference will be jointly hosted by Saïd Business School and the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. Theme: Organising sustainable health and care. Previous conferences have explored a range of pressing issues, including adapting to and resisting policy and organisational change, innovation and transformation, and the dynamics of power, leadership, and culture.

Organisational Behaviour in Health Care (OBHC) Conference 2026

Submit your paper You are invited to submit a paper for the Organisational Behaviour in Health Care (OBHC) Conference 2026. The conference will be jointly hosted by Saïd Business School and the Nuffield Department of Primary Care…

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5 months ago

Ooh - my new paper on case study is out! What’s a case study, how do you do one, how do you spot a good one? Includes niche examples like the REF impact case study (though it’s mainly about research case studies).

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6 months ago

Research Fellow (NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR)):Oxford Road The successful candidate will be expected to be a highly experienced qualitative researcher who is able to work independently while also working alongside experienced colleagues and with shared responsibility for managing the project.

📢 We’re looking for a Research Fellow (with a strong qualitative research background) to work on an NIHR-funded project exploring additional roles in primary care in England and Scotland. You will be working with a great team @kathcheckland.bsky.social @damianeh.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/dnr6djtk

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7 months ago

Barriers to Accessing Primary Healthcare in Jordan: Reflections from the 2025 HPPN Spring Event By Nour Al Quraan I was delighted to attend the HPPN Spring Event once again this year. After first joining the network at the 2024 event in Manchester, it was a pleasure to return in 2025, especially as it was hosted at the Health Services Management Centre (HSMC) at the University of Birmingham, which is also my home department.

Barriers to Accessing Primary Healthcare in Jordan: Reflections from the 2025 HPPN Spring Event

By Nour Al Quraan I was delighted to attend the HPPN Spring Event once again this year. After first joining the network at the 2024 event in Manchester, it was a pleasure to return in 2025, especially…

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7 months ago

Health Services Research UK 2025 By Imelda McDermott The Health Services Research UK (HSRUK) conference is a must-attend annual event for those interested in health and care services research, policy, and practice in the UK and internationally. It brings together a diverse community including academics, policymakers, and NHS and social care professionals, to promote cutting-edge research, foster collaboration, and drive improvements in health and social care.

Health Services Research UK 2025

By Imelda McDermott The Health Services Research UK (HSRUK) conference is a must-attend annual event for those interested in health and care services research, policy, and practice in the UK and internationally. It brings together a diverse community including…

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7 months ago

What a State: Why the U.S. is Still Bad for Your Health (Policy) The second Trump administration's centrepiece legislation, the modestly-named Big Beautiful Bill, passed by the House of Representatives and going through the Senate at time of writing, offers an opportunity to reflect upon how the U.S. state affects health policy and the prospects for equitable access to affordable healthcare. Is the U.S. still an outlier (by comparison with Europe and much of the world), in that its many of its citizens are either uncovered, poorly covered or tenuously and only temporarily covered by health insurance?

What a State: Why the U.S. is Still Bad for Your Health (Policy)

The second Trump administration's centrepiece legislation, the modestly-named Big Beautiful Bill, passed by the House of Representatives and going through the Senate at time of writing, offers an opportunity to reflect upon how the…

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7 months ago

ZOMBIE POLICY APOCALYPSE… ANOTHER MORAL PANIC ABOUT THE NHS By Calum Paton According to Wikipedia, “zombie apocalypse is a subgenre of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies.” Well, thanks to Policy Exchange and its cheerleaders in the Telegraph, Times and various other outlets which are not above selling moral panic for profit, the zombie policy of replacing the NHS with ‘social insurance’ is getting yet another airing.

ZOMBIE POLICY APOCALYPSE…

ANOTHER MORAL PANIC ABOUT THE NHS By Calum Paton According to Wikipedia, “zombie apocalypse is a subgenre of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies.” Well, thanks to Policy Exchange and its cheerleaders in…

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8 months ago

THE VISION THING? – THE 10 YEAR HEALTH PLAN By Calum Paton First thing first: ‘Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England’ is not a plan. It is this government collecting and rebranding various themes which have run through ‘landmark’ national documents about the NHS and health in the 21st century. Does this add up to a vision? Don’t ask Keir Starmer - in the words of President George H.W.

THE VISION THING? – THE 10 YEAR HEALTH PLAN

By Calum Paton First thing first: ‘Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England’ is not a plan. It is this government collecting and rebranding various themes which have run through ‘landmark’ national documents about the NHS and health in the…

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8 months ago

Identifying risks in dementia care: Insights from a qualitative study with clinical pharmacists Introduction People with dementia experience complex healthcare needs. Clinical pharmacists play a crucial role in optimising medication management and ensuring patient safety within the primary care ...

Also just put our paper on clinical pharmacists supporting people with #dementia in primary care - exploring risk & safety of dementia care - journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... @qmul-wiph.bsky.social @qmulpsychiatry.bsky.social

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9 months ago

OUR NEW PAPER: the 'final findings' paper from the Remote by Default 2 study:

"After the disruptive innovation: How remote and digital services were embedded, blended and abandoned in UK general practice"

(will do thread on this soon)
www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hsdr/publish...

#academicsky 🧪

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9 months ago

WHAT A STATE! (in the U.S., it's the politics, stupid) By Calum Paton My title doesn’t refer to the Trump v. Musk dust-up. (If politics is showbusiness for ugly people, then that is a Monster Movie for protagonists too politically ugly to get the roles of Godzilla and Kong.) No, I am referring to the nature of the U.S state. And in particular, to its effect upon health policy.

WHAT A STATE!

(in the U.S., it's the politics, stupid) By Calum Paton My title doesn’t refer to the Trump v. Musk dust-up. (If politics is showbusiness for ugly people, then that is a Monster Movie for protagonists too politically ugly to get the roles of Godzilla and Kong.) No, I am referring to…

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9 months ago

NHS Staff - Waste Not Want Not

Currently the UK is training & losing large numbers of staff & then increasingly relying on overseas graduates
Many reasons, pay, workload, stress, better opportunities abroad or alternative careers
@nuffieldtrust.bsky.social

www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/sites/defaul...

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9 months ago

The partnership model in general practice predates the NHS. Is now the time to change it? The partnership model in general practice in England has been in place since before the NHS was formed, but its future is uncertain. The number of GP partners has fallen significantly, and relatively…

The partnership model has a long history, but the proportion of GPs in England working as partners has fallen over the last decade. The trend is more pronounced for younger GPs.

Our briefing from @becksfisher.bsky.social‬ sets the scene and considers the case for alternative models: buff.ly/LL1f0gz

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10 months ago

BOOM AND BUST, NHS BOOM AND BUST… ‘the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must’ By Calum Paton Gordon Brown (Chancellor, 1997-2007; PM 2007-2010) took years to acknowledge that his promise to ‘end boom and bust’ had been undermined by the financial crisis of 2008. The NHS has likewise been subject to boom and bust. Mostly unacknowledged. (Three-year budgets are often promised, as a minor protection against see-saw, but they never materialise in a meaningful form.) NHS boom and bust of course reflects the bumper ride of the economy as a whole.

BOOM AND BUST, NHS BOOM AND BUST…

‘the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must’ By Calum Paton Gordon Brown (Chancellor, 1997-2007; PM 2007-2010) took years to acknowledge that his promise to ‘end boom and bust’ had been undermined by the financial crisis of 2008. The NHS has…

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10 months ago

GENDER WARS: THE SEQUEL – coming to a hospital ward near you By Calum Paton The Supreme Court has ruled that in the Equality Act 2010 (the Act), 'sex' means biological sex. This means that, under the Act, a 'woman' is a biological woman or girl (a person born female) and a 'man' is a biological man or boy (a person born male). If someone identifies as trans, they have not changed sex for the purposes of the Act, meaning that a trans woman is a biological man and a trans man is a biological woman.

GENDER WARS: THE SEQUEL – coming to a hospital ward near you

By Calum Paton The Supreme Court has ruled that in the Equality Act 2010 (the Act), 'sex' means biological sex. This means that, under the Act, a 'woman' is a biological woman or girl (a person born female) and a 'man' is a biological…

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10 months ago

STREET(ING) LEVEL By Calum Paton Health Secretary Wes Streeting is trying to learn from the Brazilian favelas, as part of his ‘prevention and promotion, get services into the community and save money’ mantra. We are told there is a ‘pilot project’ in Pimlico and 25 other ‘roll outs’ rolling along. (Have a look at How might this go? Well, Pimlico is conveniently near to Westminster.

STREET(ING) LEVEL

By Calum Paton Health Secretary Wes Streeting is trying to learn from the Brazilian favelas, as part of his ‘prevention and promotion, get services into the community and save money’ mantra. We are told there is a ‘pilot project’ in Pimlico and 25 other ‘roll outs’ rolling along.…

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10 months ago

BBC Radio 4 - Moral Maze, What is the ethical purpose of the NHS? Debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories.

Tune in to BBC Radio 4 tonight at 8pm for a new episode of #MoralMaze recorded at our Summit last month. 📻

Guests debate the ethical purpose of the #NHS. Should we care more about equality of outcome – being equally healthy – or equality of access – treating everyone the same?

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11 months ago

To be or not to be: The identity work of pharmacists as clinicians This study explores how pharmacists legitimise the expansion of their clinical work and considers its impact on pharmacists’ professional identity work. In the context of pharmacy in the English NHS,....

Paper on pharmacist identity as clinicians among the top 10 most cited in Sociology of Health and Illness in 2023
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Well done @imcdermott.bsky.social @ellenschaf.bsky.social & team
@uniofmanchester.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social

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11 months ago

BJGPLife: Episode 201: Looking back at the BJGP Research Conference 2025
bjgplife.com/episode...

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11 months ago

Lies, Damned Lies and Right-wing health ‘policy’ (Or, tell the big lie about the NHS often enough, and..) By Calum Paton I can say, hand on heart, that I have never known a more depressing time in British politics. Why? Is it perhaps the ageing process wearying me (I am 69 later this year)? Or cynicism after too many decades studying politics? Whatever the partial truths of these, there are much bigger reasons. Firstly, the Labour government is combining macro-economic and fiscal sado-masochism on a ridiculous scale.

Lies, Damned Lies and Right-wing health ‘policy’ (Or, tell the big lie about the NHS often enough, and..)

By Calum Paton I can say, hand on heart, that I have never known a more depressing time in British politics. Why? Is it perhaps the ageing process wearying me (I am 69 later this year)? Or…

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11 months ago

We open with Keynote Speaker
Kath Checkland.

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11 months ago

The paper contributes to the sociology of professions, specifically the changing status of pharmacists from being an ‘incomplete profession’ to having a higher degree of clinical autonomy over patient care.

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11 months ago

Drawing insights from linguistics and, specifically, ‘grammar of legitimation’, our paper explains how a nationally funded learning programme provides the discursive strategies for pharmacists to legitimise their identity work as clinicians.

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11 months ago

Pharmacists are expected to further expand their clinical roles to include more patient interactions and approach them in a similar way to other healthcare professionals, playing a key role in preventing illness and expanding their clinical work in community pharmacies.

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11 months ago

The expansion of pharmacists’ clinical work has led to ongoing debates about the changing status of the profession. The increased clinical role of pharmacists requires pharmacists to form new ways of constructing and managing the patient’s body, which is conceptualised as the ‘pharmacy gaze’.

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11 months ago

The paper is situated within the context of pharmacy in the NHS in England. Since the 1950s, there has been a shift in pharmacists’ work from scientifically based ‘medicines supply’ (making and selling medicines and dispensing prescriptions) to clinical, patient-facing work.

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11 months ago

To be or not to be: The identity work of pharmacists as clinicians This study explores how pharmacists legitimise the expansion of their clinical work and considers its impact on pharmacists’ professional identity work. In the context of pharmacy in the English NHS,...

Thrilled to share that our paper on pharmacists' professional identity work is one of the Top 10 most-cited papers published by SHI in 2023! READ HERE onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @ellenschaf.bsky.social #TopCitedArticle #pharmacy #pharmacist #identity #sociology

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11 months ago

Congratulations 🎉 to all new (& reappointed) NIHR Senior Investigators inc. @kathcheckland.bsky.social from @hope-uom.bsky.social
See more: tinyurl.com/3bdru4xk

@nihr.bsky.social @drdon.bsky.social @imcdermott.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social @uniofmanchester.bsky.social

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