Barriers to doctors successfully delivering leadership in the NHS

Leadership will be essential to deliver the changes outlined in the Five year forward view and to ensure that the efficiencies identified in the Carter Review are delivered. To achieve the scale of savings outlined in these papers, while maintaining the quality and safety of care, all NHS staff will need to be involved in and to take the lead in identifying wasteful practice and procurement and, more importantly, to become the agents of change and architects of innovative and high-quality practice. However, many barriers exist to successful leadership by doctors in the NHS. In this article we present qualitative data from interviews with senior NHS leaders identifying several real-word barriers that need action to maximise the success of the medical profession in leading these changes.