In this in-depth episode, we sit down with Dr. Zainab Hussain — a GP partner, educator, and one of the most authentic medical voices emerging online — to explore what it’s really like to work inside the NHS today.

Zainab opens up about her early life growing up in Cardiff, inspired by hardworking parents, and takes us on her journey through medicine: from rotations in renal, spinal, mental health, and paediatrics, to building a career as a GP in Stoke-on-Trent.

This 90-minute conversation is a deep, human-centred exploration of general practice — its values, its challenges, and its future. We discuss digital access, patient expectations, workforce pressures, policy shifts, and the power of authentic connection between doctor and patient.

If you want to understand the heart of the NHS, this is where to start.

What We Discuss

• Zainab’s upbringing and the family values that shaped her
• Her path through multiple specialties before choosing general practice
• The inner workings of GP practices — funding, partners, and incentives
• The GP-patient relationship and why continuity of care matters
• Phone queues, e-consults, and digital exclusion
• Burnout, emigration, and the GP workforce crisis
• The effect of policy churn and management overload on clinical care
• The potential of AI and augmented intelligence in primary care
• How we can better fund, respect, and empower general practice
• Zainab’s social media journey — and why communication is clinical
• Balancing medicine, motherhood, and meaning 

Links & Resources

• 📺 Watch the full video episode: YouTube – Let’s Fix the NHS
• 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts: Search Let’s Fix the NHS
• 🌐 LetsFIXtheNHS.help – Join the movement
• 📲 Follow Dr. Zainab Hussain
• 
  
  • TikTok: @TheDoctor2010
  • Instagram: @DrZainabGP

• 📲 Follow LetsFIXtheNHS
• 
  
  • TikTok: @LetsFIXtheNHS.Help
  • Instagram: @LetsFIXtheNHS.Help
  • YouTube: @LetsFIXtheNHS

Support the Movement

If you believe the NHS can — and must — be fixed, subscribe, share, and help us amplify the voices that matter. The solutions are out there. Let’s find them, together.

Sir David Haslam has spent a lifetime at the heart of British healthcare — from working as a frontline GP to chairing the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and advising the Care Quality Commission. Few people have had more influence — or more insight into why the NHS is struggling and what it will take to fix it.

In this episode of NHS Unfiltered, Sir David joins LetsFIXtheNHS founder Steve Podmore for an honest, wide-ranging conversation about:

• Why the NHS has drifted from its founding purpose
• The unintended consequences of measurement, targets, and bureaucracy
• What real leadership in healthcare should look like
• The reaction to his acclaimed book Side Effects — and what it says about the public mood
• How we can restore compassion, trust, and agency in the system
• Why reform isn’t optional — it’s urgent

With a career that spans clinical practice, policy leadership, and ethical debate, Sir David offers both diagnosis and direction — reminding us that behind every health statistic is a human story, and behind every failing system, a chance to choose better.

Mentioned in this episode:

Side Effects: How our healthcare lost its way, and how we fix it (Waterstones Best Book of 2022)

Let’sFIXtheNHS is a media and engagement platform driving innovation, investment, and people-powered reform in UK healthcare. Visit www.LetsFIXtheNHS.Help to get involved.