Get to Know Jack, our PR & External Communications Manager
Jack is raising awareness of Medbelle's clinicians and patients. We speak to him about his vision for healthcare and what he's learnt from years working in the industry.
What was it about Medbelle that attracted you?
Two things: the mission and the way the team approaches it. Medbelle wants to transform healthcare, which is a pretty ambitious goal, but it’s also something that is long overdue. I know from previous roles in the health sector and my own experience receiving healthcare that too often, the system is working against both staff and patients. Healthcare staff are doing amazing things in the most challenging circumstances, but they need to be better supported. For patients, it’s too easy to feel lost when you try to navigate a fragmented system and frustrated when different parts don’t join up or talk to each other. So I was impressed by Medbelle’s mission to transform the sector by rebuilding the patient journey from the ground up, putting both patients and clinicians at the heart of it.
Such an important goal might seem overwhelming, but what struck me about Medbelle was how passionate the team is, how well they work together, and how enthusiastically they tackle the many challenges that are thrown up along the way. I couldn’t wait to join in!
"I had to learn in my previous roles how to communicate the complexity of healthcare in an easily understood way without misrepresenting it"
What does the future of healthcare look like to you?
We’re yet to see the sort of digital transformation in healthcare that has revolutionised other industries. And while digitalisation is slowly creeping into the sector, it can be in quite piecemeal ways and without a proper strategy. One of the things that impressed me about Medbelle was that it embraces technology but always with patient experience in mind. So what I expect to see is the current trickle of digitalisation to speed up. What I hope to see is this happening in a properly planned and resourced way that improves outcomes for patients.
More generally, I hope that we see a more holistic approach to healthcare. We need to recognise that healthcare goes beyond what happens in a hospital and is influenced by education, infrastructure, inequalities, and so much else. In other words, I’d love to see the Medbelle ‘whole journey’ approach taken at a societal level!
You’ve had many years of experience working within the healthcare sector, what insights are you bringing to the role and what do you hope to learn from this position?
I’ve been lucky enough to meet and work with a lot of frontline healthcare staff, promoting their work and finding out the challenges they face, and I hope this has given me a good idea of the best ways to support them. One of the big challenges in communicating about healthcare is its complexity. There are hundreds of acronyms and technical words, and that’s just talking about the sector itself, let alone the scientific world of diseases and medications. What I had to learn in my previous roles was how to communicate the complexity of healthcare in an easily understood way without misrepresenting it.
This is important. Making healthcare accessible includes making sure people can understand it so that they can make informed decisions about their treatment options.
As with my previous roles, I fully expect to learn a lot from the clinicians I work with. Previously I haven’t had as much contact with patients though, and I think that will change at Medbelle as I am keen to tell their stories. I’m sure I will learn just as much from them.
How can we positively impact the public perception of private healthcare?
It was very important to me when taking this role that Medbelle does not see itself as a replacement for the NHS. The improvements Medbelle is making through better use of technology, joining up services, and measuring outcomes in more detail can be applied to all healthcare all over the world. So I think it’s important not to view or communicate this as some kind of black and white, either/or situation. Medbelle’s priority is helping patients, who will be choosing private care for all manner of reasons, and my aim will be communicating how and why we are doing that, as well as telling those patients’ stories. My main priority is that we keep patients at the heart of discussions around the health service, and that will be my focus.
It's not enough for businesses to simply provide a service anymore, enacting positive change in the world is a big part of making a difference. How is Medbelle achieving this?
It became obvious after working here for just a few days that there is a real passion at Medbelle for improving healthcare. Not just private healthcare, not just healthcare in the UK, but making improvements and innovations that can benefit patients around the world. As the model expands to incorporate more specialities and as we collect more outcomes that can be used by clinicians to study and improve different treatments, I can see why there is so much excitement here. I can’t think of many things more positive than improving people’s access to high-quality healthcare.
