And so we continue our mini series of podcasts on universal healthcare, in collaboration with London South Bank University and the Universal Healthcare Network!

Kim Shutler shares insights on the role of the voluntary sector in healthcare, with a focus on community-based solutions.

With the NHS experiencing overwhelming demand, we need radical transformation with more power and resources within communities.

Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋
🍋 Let’s maximise voluntary sector potential in health care

🍋 Create the conditions for VCSEs to thrive and transform healthcare by shifting power and resources closer to communities.

🍋 Old system HAS bitten back post-pandemic, due to governance structures and statutory provisions – but we KNOW we can do things more imaginatively!

🍋 Success comes from relationships, passionate individuals, a local knowledge

🍋 We need a bottom-up approach to healthcare transformation

🍋 Value and build trust with communities and local organisations

🍋 Collaborate across boundaries to maximise innovation and resources

🍋 Make decisions WITH people to avoid unintended consequences

🍋 Use imaginative, inclusive ideas like participatory budgeting

🍋 Enable small organisations to focus on work, rather than bidding for work

🍋 Cut the jargon and hoops to jump through!

🍋 Open doors - find out what local voluntary organisations are doing and find opportunities to collaborate

🍋 VCSEs should approach local practices and primary care networks to explore partnership opportunities

🍋 Primary care can run clinics and health checks in voluntary sector buildings to engage communities

🍋 Different localities require unique solutions, but key principles save you re-inventing the wheel

🍋 Decision-making power shift can be uncomfortable for those used to traditional distribution of money

🍋 Social prescribing is important to address social needs and reduce medicalisation

🍋 Social prescribing is great … but not if there are lots of travel agents and no holidays!!

🍋 Practice-based peer support workers with lived experience of mental health problems can provide community-based support, funded by the GP practice

🍋 Invest in communities and hand over power to drive change

🍋 Start small. Start somewhere!

Links:
Becky Malby – Universal Healthcare - podcast
Universal HealthCare National Inquiry
Easy Read Executive Summary
10 Leaps Forward - Innovation in the pandemic
Gill's Universal Healthcare work with MPFT

The Art of the possible Gill's poem inspired by the conversation with Kim Shutler

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If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful
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I tweet as @WhoseShoes and @WildCardWS and am on Instagram as @WildCardWS.

Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

🎙️ Wildcard Whose Shoes? - “Don’t Medicalise Poverty” with Dr. George Winder, GP in Leeds

In this powerful episode of ‘Wildcard - Whose Shoes?’, host Gill Phillips sits down with Dr. George Winder, a passionate GP from Leeds, to explore a critical issue in healthcare: the medicalisation of poverty. George shares eye-opening stories from his work, revealing how social injustice and poverty affect health and well-being—and why simply prescribing medication isn’t the answer.

Gill and George discuss real-life examples of how local care partnerships and community support networks are making a difference in Leeds. From housing and domestic violence to food hunger, George shares his team’s innovative approaches to tackling the root causes of illness. Listen in to learn how co-produced solutions and third-sector collaboration are transforming lives—like “V,” who went from being dependent on medication to becoming a community leader.

If you’re passionate about social justice, healthcare reform, or community well-being, this conversation will inspire and challenge you.

Tune in and take a walk in someone else’s shoes! 🎧

Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋
🍋The NHS is medicalising poverty - we need to address the root causes of health inequalities - the wider determinants of health
🍋 George shares practical examples of how we can work together to create a healthcare system that truly supports those in need
🍋 Use asset-based approaches
🍋 Focus on addressing need
🍋 Go out to where people are, rather than expecting them to come to you
🍋 Storytelling is very powerful in this
🍋 Co-produced solutions and third-sector collaboration are transforming lives
🍋 More resources would mean more people could be helped

Links to earlier episodes in this Universal Healthcare series:
Becky Malby - What is universal healthcare and why does it matter?
Tom Holliday - Children get less

We LOVE it when you leave a review!
If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful
please share your thoughts by leaving a review (Apple is easiest to leave a review) and comment on your favourite episodes.

I tweet as @WhoseShoes and @WildCardWS and am on Instagram as @WildCardWS.

Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

Here is the first episode of this special mini podcast series, in collaboration with London South Bank University and the Universal Healthcare Network.

(You will remember that Episode 56 with Professor Becky Malby was our first ‘bookend’ to introduce this series and tell you why Universal Healthcare is important)

Dr Tom Holliday is my first guest to dive in and share examples of how universal healthcare works in practice, breaking down traditional barriers to deliver more personalised care in a more equitable and human way.

Tom, as well as being a great friend of mine, is a very forward thinking consultant paediatrician. He is also now leading the Darzi Fellowship programme, with which I work closely every year with Whose Shoes.

Children Get Less. Not here! We have put them FIRST!

After all, they are our future.

Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋
🍋 Follow this series to learn ALL about Universal Healthcare - and why it matters!
🍋Children are often pushed to the back – so we’re putting them first!
🍋 Good healthcare should come to where families are, not expect people to visit lots of separate buildings and specialists
🍋 Integrated care is jargon. Best practice care is what we must aim for
🍋 It is about providing the holistic care a child needs.
🍋When you are passed on from service to service, important information gets lost through the gaps.
🍋 It’s all about relationships! Across care boundaries!
🍋 If you swap GPs, you shouldn’t have to start again with a new CAMHS referral!
🍋 The NHS incentivises and measures activity; it should focus on meeting need
🍋 if you meet need, the overall level of need goes down
🍋 Third sector organisations need sustainable funding to plan longer term
🍋 If you can tackle issues via primary care, people don’t need to come to hospital
🍋 Complex problems can be resolved through good multidisciplinary working
🍋 If you don’t know the answer, phone a friend!
🍋 Physical health and mental health are interconnected
🍋 Children get less - especially mental health provision
🍋 CYP mental health services might talk in terms of a waiting list
🍋 Families, waiting for mental health support, talk in terms of “this isn’t a wait, it’s a life on hold!” 😢
🍋 Prevention and early intervention make all the difference
🍋 It’s not rocket science. It’s actually quite easy!
🍋 The patient is the expert in their own condition and how it feels
🍋 It’s all about teamwork and learning from others – nobody is doing this work alone!

Links:
Universal HealthCare National Inquiry
Easy Read Executive Summary
10 Leaps Forward - Innovation in the pandemic
Bob Klaber - kindness matters
Gill's Universal Healthcare work with MPFT

We LOVE it when you leave a review!
If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful
please share your thoughts by leaving a review (Apple is easiest to leave a review) and comment on your favourite episodes.

I tweet as @WhoseShoes and @WildCardWS and am on Instagram as @WildCardWS.

Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.