ABSTRACT
Introduction What role do doctors have in the management and leadership of the National Health Service (NHS)? Should physicians confine themselves to clinical activ ity? Should individual patient outcomes be our only concern, or do we have a role in managing the system, in enhancing and redesigning services and improv ing the patient experience? Where are the clinical leaders of the future; in the consulting room and clinic, or in the back offices and administration blocks of our practices and hospitals? This chapter explores the nature of management and leadership, and argues that in a perpetually modernising NHS, the need for clinicians' involvement in these distinct, but inter-related, activities has never been greater. In particular, the focus is on the roles and professional responsi bilities of doctors working flexibly. Despite their distinctive characteristics - always part-time, often female - it is hoped to demonstrate the importance of clinicians' involvement in service development, that management is an activity not a profession and that leadership is everyone's responsibility.
