Today we start our brand new series 'Finger on the Pulse', which aims to explore current affairs and contemporary issues related to medicine, the NHS, and ethics, and discuss them from a Christian perspective. Last week saw the start of the new series of Love Island, and so Sally and Ben discuss issues raised by the show, particularly around body image and how we should relate to our bodies. 

Resources:

"Mental Health Foundation criticises new series of Love Island as it releases new statistics about body image and reality TV", Mental Health Foundation
https://cmf.li/42Exozw

"Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality", Nancy Pearcey (Baker Books)

"Issues Facing Christians Today", John Stott (IVP)

"'Because you're worth it? The BMA and the junior doctors' strike", Mark Pickering (CMF Blogs)
https://cmf.li/3UrX7ZK

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This is a mini-series focussing on healthcare leadership. In this series of interviews, we want to share what it looks like to be a Christian leading in the healthcare arena and so we hope you will find this a helpful and inspiring series.

Today we’re delighted to hear from Dr Chimwemwe Kalumbi, an Obstetrician & Gynaecologist in Surrey. Chim is Early Pregnancy Consultant Lead and Divisional Lead for Woman and Children’s Health and is Clinical Lead for Quality and Safety. She is President of the Christian Healthcare Professionals Network and is president and founder of a small charity, Every Mother and Child Matters Foundation that focuses on supporting women’s health services across Sub- Saharan region in underprivileged communities to help reduce avoidable maternal and neonatal deaths.

This was a fascinating conversation about leading yourself before leading others, making a global impact and how to grapple with failure. Find out more about the Christian Healthcare Professionals Network at https://www.chpnet.org.uk and the Christian Healthcare Leadership Network at cmf.li/CHLN 

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In this episode of the Christians in Healthcare Leadership Network (CHLN) podcast, John catches up with Dr Eugenia Lee.

Eugenia is a GP in South East London with a portfolio career in management, education and commissioning. She has worked with the local, regional and national bodies such as the CCG, Health Education England, Healthy London Partnership, and NICE.

For more information about CHLN, visit: https://cmf.li/CHLN

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Welcome to the sixth and final episode in this new mini-series, Junior Doctor Foundations, released as part of CMF’s 1st incision podcast. 

This mini-series of six episodes focuses on thriving as a Christian junior doctor living and working in a culture described as a ‘Digital Babylon’. 
 
Life in the twenty-first century is accelerated and more complex than ever before. As Christians, especially junior doctors, it can feel like we are exiles living in a culture hostile to our faith. So how might we keep running the race of faith despite all the challenges?
 
Today we are unpacking the topic of countercultural mission and asking, ‘What really matters in life?’ and ‘What counts for a life well lived?’. 

Your host is Lizzy Kennedy (a junior doctor based in Devon); she is joined by John Greenall (a Paediatrician and CMF Associate CEO) and Felicia Wong (a GP and CMF Head of Doctor’s Ministries).

Faith for Exiles: 

This podcast series is inspired by the book Faith for Exiles. Written by members of the Barna Research Group who have interviewed around 100,000 young adults, it focuses on what we can learn from the practices of those young people who have kept going with their faith.
To find out more about the book Faith for Exiles, check out  faithforexiles.com   
You can find more about the CMF research on this topic here at cmf.li/ResilientDisciple 

Resource recommendations: 

• Further information about the CMF resources John mentioned can be found at: cmf.org.uk
• ‘Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions’, a book by Greg Koukl 
• LICC: licc.org.uk/  
• OCCA: theocca.org/ 
• Evangelical Alliance: eauk.org/ 
  
  

CMF pastoral support: 

• Find out more about CMF’s support for junior doctors at cmf.org.uk/juniors/  
• Email address: [email protected]  

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Chris Holcombe is Consultant Breast Surgeon in Liverpool and currently Associate Medical Director for Clinical Effectiveness and President of the Association of Breast Surgery. He has done various leadership roles locally, regionally, and nationally over the years and spent three years working in Africa.

His passion is to 'take his ordinary life - his sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life - and place it before God (Romans 12.1, Message) and to ask for God's wisdom and grace while doing it, with the aim of embedding Kingdom values in the workplace, and hopefully making things a little better and a little more Godly for his passing.

For more information about CHLN, visit: https://cmf.li/CHLN

What it means to be salt and light in NHS leadership &​ management​ PPT.
https://bit.ly/3mkFUVg

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Catriona Waitt is a Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Global Health at the University of Liverpool. She works primarily at the Infectious Diseases Institute, Makerere University, Uganda. She leads a team investigating drug dosing, safety and effectiveness in complex populations such as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and their infants. She leads several large multinational projects.

Catriona is motivated by the words in Micah 6:8: 'He has shown you O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?' She and her husband Peter both work less than full-time in clinical academic roles whilst sharing the home education of their four children and serving in various ministries through Lugogo Baptist Church. 

 For more information about CHLN, visit: https://cmf.li/CHLN

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Welcome to the fifth episode in this new mini-series, Junior Doctor Foundations, 

Your host is Lizzy Kennedy (a junior doctor based in Devon); she is joined by Felicia Wong (GP and CMF Head of Doctor’s Ministries), and guest speaker Sue Holcombe (Advanced Nurse Practitioner and CMF’s Associate for Whole Life Faith).

This podcast series is inspired by the book Faith for Exiles. Written by members of the Barna Research Group who have interviewed around 100,000 young adults, it focuses on what we can learn from the practices of those young people who have kept going with their faith. Check out faithforexiles.com

You can find more about the CMF research on this topic at cmf.li/ResilientDisciple

Resource recommendations: 

• Saline Solution organised by CMF: cmf.org.uk/doctors/saline-solution
• CMF Regional Groups, these allow you to connect with other Christians in healthcare near you: cmf.org.uk/catalyst-teams
• LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity): www.licc.org.uk/about/work/

If you would like to discuss anything about Whole Life Faith in more detail, please contact Sue Holcombe (Whole Life Faith Associate) at [email protected]

Find out more about CMF’s support for junior doctors at cmf.org.uk/juniors/

Pastoral care: [email protected]

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Gubby Ayida is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust(CWFT). She is currently seconded as the Medical Director at Hillingdon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. 

With a strong background in NHS management and clinical leadership, Gubby is involved with NHS transformation work and Integrated Care Working both place-based and across the sector. She has effectively led change management during a merger of two acute hospitals. Gubby is Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust's Special Advisor to the Trust Board on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, a role taken up just before the first wave of the Covid pandemic. 

She seeks to systematically use her current executive and board advisory roles and management experience to deliver transactional improvements and influence much-needed cultural change to address 'belonging' in the NHS People Plan and tackle the health inequalities exposed by the pandemic. 

 For more information about CHLN, visit: https://cmf.li/CHLN

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In our first episode of the Christians in Healthcare Leadership Network (CHLN) mini-series, we present a talk given by Dr Mark Pickering at the CHLN conference 'Serving Not Sinking'.

Dr Mark Pickering has been CMF Chief Executive since 2019. Prior to that he has been a CMF Board member and was Head of Student Ministries in the 2000s. 

After GP training, Mark gravitated into secure environment medicine, working as a GP in prisons and secure psychiatric units. He has been a regional lead GP for two large UK offender healthcare providers. He continues a small amount of secure environment GP work alongside his CMF responsibilities.

For more information about CHLN, visit: https://cmf.li/CHLN

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In today's extra podcast, guest presenters Sally Barker and Benjamin Chang discuss Monday's vote for strike action by junior doctors in England and Wales. As waves of industrial action in many sectors sweep the nation, Sally and Ben discuss whether Christians should ever strike over pay and conditions, let alone those in responsible roles such as junior doctors? Is there an issue of justice here, and if so, for whom? And whether we decide to strike or not to strike, what will be the consequences?

 This is an issue that has come up repeatedly over the last few years, and CMF has produced some resources and discussions on the issue in the past. The links below relate mainly to the junior doctors' strikes of 2015-2016: 

• Debate: To strike or not to strike? YES - https://cmf.li/3IsmUvl
• Debate:  To strike or not to strike? NO - https://cmf.li/3EyPolZ
• Junior doctors and industrial action - https://cmf.li/3Zkf6Tg
• News Review: Junior Doctors' Dispute - https://cmf.li/3ZiS7aZ

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