Dr Syeda Farah Farzana
Dr Syeda Farah Farzana has recently completed her academic foundation training at Royal Bolton Hospital. Her academic post focussed on medical leadership and as a part of this, she has developed a training program aimed at foundation trainees focussing on health inequalities amongst minority communities. She set up this project with the hope that trusts across the Northwest can take part in delivering formal and structured training to their foundation trainees on the subjects of cultural awareness and health inequalities. Project ‘Equal health’, with collaboration from Health Education England, is currently operating in 17 individual trusts. Farah is also a trustee of a voluntary organisation called AskDoc, which is set up by likeminded healthcare professions and it aims to improve the health of the Greater Manchester ethnic minority communities. They are an established community health organisation and aim to tackle barriers to accessing health care services within minority and vulnerable groups. The organisation has collaborated with Public Health England, cancer alliance services of greater Manchester and various local CCGs. She studied at the University of Manchester where she completed her MBChB, alongside an intercalated MRes degree in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. She completed a further postgraduate level module on medical leadership at Edgehill University. During her time at university, she was recruited by the university as a widening participation fellow to promote STEM careers amongst students from disadvantaged backgrounds. She was also an integral part of the Manchester Access programme and mentored many potential medical students from a widening participation background.
Reason for applying for the scheme
The passion and enthusiasm for Medical Leadership for Farah stemmed from her academic foundation training in medical leadership. Medical leadership is important to Farah, as she believes that good leadership leads to improved health outcomes, improved patient safety and reduces inequalities in healthcare provision. It is the means of effectively and ethically influencing individuals and populations to improve their health. However, an opportunity to gain a critical understanding of the strategies required to become an effective and successful leader are limited within medical training, and this was the key motivation for applying for this scheme. She hopes this scheme will help provide that exposure in order to improve her leadership potential. Due to the current circumstances around the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of changes have had to be made by healthcare professionals from all areas to meet increasing pressures and demands. It required leaders to be adaptable, innovative and act fast in times of crisis. The pressures faced required health care professionals to ‘act up’ and demonstrate effective leadership roles despite, even as junior clinicians. This scheme will offer the opportunity to contribute to regional and national priorities including recovery, reset and implementation of learning from the pandemic. With all her work within vaccine hesitancy and tackling health inequalities, issues that were further highlighted by the pandemic, this fellowship is a perfect fit for her expertise and interests.
