Today, Wednesday 29th March 2017 see’s the latest landmark in UK history, as we have invoked Article 50 and have officially told the rest of Europe that we want to start negotiations to leave the European Union (EU).

Never before in recent history has a single document been so important in terms of its impact on all of our lives. Be that on those of us who were born in the UK, or not. Never before does a single document have the power to unite us as a collective population, or tear us apart.

All too often because we can’t see things for ourselves, with our own eyes, we can’t get a real sense of the impact that healthcare colleagues have on the lives of their patients. We can’t see the effect that their compassion, understanding and patience has on patients and their families each and every day.

The Christmas and New Year period saw the NHS at almost breaking point with record numbers of people accessing ambulance and A&E services – a lot, in fact a third of those patients according to NHS England went to A&E inappropriately! And yes my grandma was one of those - she was part of the NHS’s problem, but not through any fault of her own!

When was the last time you attended an exhibition or conference?

What did you come away with - apart from carrier bags full of leaflets and information? 

How many times have you opened your business email inbox and just deleted or ignored any emails that you deemed ‘unimportant’ this week?

How do you know that they were unimportant, if you didn’t even bother to read them?

You will probably know how it feels when you hear or see the word ‘networking’ attached to event agendas, and your heart drops. Why is that? Why havn’t we really mastered the art of effective networking in our business lives yet?

Outsourcing specialist projects and pieces of work to skilled consultants and consultancies is a natural day to day process in business today. It is the most efficient and effective way to run an organisation, right?

Nearly one week on from the Brexit result to the EU referendum, and never before in my life time has there been such a need for positive, effective communications!

Developing a successful plan for healthcare patient and customer engagement may seem like a huge and expensive undertaking, but it doesn’t have to be.

When was the last time you received a personalised communication from a primary care, dental, acute or specialist healthcare provider?

I was really taken aback last weekend when the neighbour that I was talking to over the garden fence questioned me as I mentioned the acronym Devo Manc. Who, what, why, when, how were the combination of questions that followed, as I systematically tried to explain (with my limited amount of knowledge) what it stood for, what the aims, timescales etc are for the programme.

Within a matter of weeks, we are going to have to make one of the biggest decisions of our lives - one that will potentially have a huge impact on life as we know it. But which of the two choices – brexit or stay, will honestly protect our precious health services?

Yes it’s that time of year again: Eurovision Song Contest time.

Love it or loathe it, the Eurovision is here again this week; bringing together music loving individuals from across Europe for a huge well-being party.

The secret to developing successful new working partnerships and organisational forms is based on one word - communication.

What do the words ‘location, location, location’ have to do with re-branding, the new health and social care agenda, and the push to break down historical barriers to integration between agencies around place based care? The answer – well from my perspective anyway, is everything.

We recognise the importance of communicating effectively with patients when they are in front of us in practices or surgeries for their appointments, so why then do we not recognise the need to proactively engage with them beyond this appointment?

Customer engagement has become a top priority for online retailers, but why not for the healthcare industry?