Chair: Dr. Lidia Georgieva and Mr. Adam Layland

Leadership and Management are important for the delivery of good quality health services in an appropriate, efficient, equitable, and sustainable manner. Health professionals should strive to be good leaders and good leaders, need management skills to be effective. Leaders will have a vision of what can be achieved and then communicate this to others and evolve strategies for realizing the vision. Managers need to have the knowledge, skills and understanding of the role, tasks and purpose of the services they deliver. (WHO)

Capable leaders and managers are vital to the healthcare systems, as they are required to manage a very complex systems, which are composed of different professional groups, departments, and specialties, with a complicated interactions between them. Globalization in healthcare requires that successful leadership and management actions and initiatives be more widely distributed.

The working group aims to facilitate the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant to leadership and management in healthcare, incorporating human resource management, financial management and quality processes. The aim is to encourage professional understanding of the impact of leadership and effective management on patient outcomes. The working group will provide a platform for sharing successful practices and discussions of the challenges and opportunities that leaders and managers face when leading the complex modern healthcare services.

Discussion topics will include:

• Diverse and changing needs in healthcare,
• Organisational behaviours and structures of healthcare systems,
• Communication, negotiation and interpersonal skills required for effective leadership and management,
• Leadership styles required to manage change,
• Increasing patient expectations,
• The high cost of new interventions and treatments,
• Internal and external pressures that healthcare is facing,
• Skills and knowledge that needed to facilitate change to improve patient outcomes,
• Evaluation of the quality of healthcare systems,
• Financial, quality and human resource management built on the foundations of a sound knowledge of the healthcare system and organisational structure and culture.