Dr Florence Wedmore
Florence Wedmore graduated from Brighton and Sussex Medical School in 2015. After undertaking foundation jobs in North London, she studied for a Masters in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, graduating with a distinction. Here, she was able to study in more detail the relationships between the environment and health, and how this links to the social and commercial determinants of health, and health inequalities.
Florence returned to clinical medicine to undertake core medical training at Barts Health Trust. At the end of her CT1 year, she co-founded the trust’s staff sustainability group and went on to chair this growing network until the summer of 2022. This allowed her to develop her leadership skills while working to advocate for more action on the climate crisis at her trust, and to support others undertaking sustainability projects.
After completing core medical training, she took up a post as an education fellow and spent two years teaching undergraduates and postgraduates, alongside continuing clinical work. This allowed her to pursue her interest in how we educate healthcare professionals on the climate crisis and their response to this. She co-ran a student-selected component on sustainable healthcare and quality improvement and set up a junior doctor sustainability associate scheme. She also gained formal training in clinical teaching through undertaking a post-graduate certificate in education. Florence has also been involved with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, working as an external facilitator on their Sustainable Quality Improvement short course.
Reason for applying for the scheme
Florence has long been convinced that acting on the climate crisis is part of our role as healthcare professionals, in order to protect the health of patients and communities. She is interested in moving beyond building the case for the need to do this, to start thinking about how we practically take action. For her, this is a key motivation for wanting to develop her leadership skills.
Florence is excited to be able to join the BMJ and to support the forward-thinking work they have already been doing on how healthcare professionals and health policymakers should respond to the climate crisis. Florence is looking forward to being able to bring together her interests in tackling the climate crisis, sustainable healthcare, education and sustainable quality improvement in this new role.
In her career, Florence hopes to be able to use the opportunities and experience gained on this fellowship scheme to continue to be involved in clinical leadership. She hopes to use this leadership to help the NHS deliver on its net zero commitments while continuing to improve health and reducing health inequalities.
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