For those of you who don’t know the term clinical director can be divided into the categories lab director, medical director, chief of service, etc. Essentially it just means that they are Top Dog of a department in terms of the medical side of things. For those of you who are familiar with the TV Show “House” the title character Gregory House is a clinical director as are Cameron and Wilson.
National clinical directors and advisors who are sometimes called Tsars are experts that supervise the implementation of a national service framework (NSF) or major clinical or service strategy. Tsars are acting advocates for the NSF or strategies within the NHS. They work with policy and delivery teams to achieve joined up action.
As national clinical directors the role also involves:
- visiting health and social care practitioners
- chairing task forces with health and social care professionals and health service managers
- working with the Royal Colleges to ensure that changes in health and social services are reflected in training and education
- chairing task forces to develop national service frameworks that bring together health professionals, service users and carers, health service managers, partner agencies, and other advocates.
Despite being at the top of the employment ladder there is still plenty of room for learning and as a result there are plenty of courses for Clinical Directors. A particularly good one is Core Skills in Finance & Business Planning for Consultants & Clinical Leaders, provided by Medicology.
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