Leadership has rarely come under the microscope as much as in recent times. With the Covid-19 death toll climbing, no end to the UK lockdown yet forthcoming and the prime minister having had to delegate responsibilities after contracting the virus himself, the world needs leaders more than ever. Over the Easter bank holiday, we will be putting leaders under the spotlight to gather their take on challenges they have faced as they have endeavoured to develop the businesses and organisations that have helped keep the UK running.
For Dr. Sunil Chopra, clinical director and founder of the London Dermatology Centre, something that is paramount to leadership is the ability of a leader to listen to and learn from those around them.
Chopra is a fully accredited member of the British Association of Dermatologists and is on the British Specialist Register of the General Medical Council. Aside from his work with the London Dermatology Centre in providing individualised treatment in a caring environment, he has written three major international postgraduate texts and run a research group actively researching skin cancer and its treatment.
Speaking exclusively to the Leaders Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in March, Dr. Chopra explained that the high quantity of stakeholders in the healthcare profession means that listening and taking into account perspectives from so many voices can prove challenging.
“There are a lot of stakeholders in the healthcare profession”, Dr. Chopra explained.
“We have patients, suppliers and also colleagues. Leadership in this sense is about taking into account the wishes of patients and others and acting in respective of that when making key decisions. That can sometimes be a challenge”.
Discussing his take on how leaders should go about making decisions, Dr. Chopra recommended that decisions be taken not only jointly, but also removed from any anger or emotion, taking time to assess the situation beforehand.
“In acute situations, there is often emotion involved, sometimes even anger”, Dr. Chopra said.
“The best policy, in my view, is for a leader not to make snap decisions, but to remove themselves from emotion and make choices in the cold light of day. When emotion is involved, leadership decisions cannot be made suddenly.”
Reflecting on his earlier career in the medical profession, Dr. Chopra believes that the lack of diversity among medical practitioners adversely impacted the standard of care that could ultimately be given.
“When I first started out, the proportion of women in the UK active in the medical profession was around 30 per cent, and the proportion of minorities was probably closer to one or two percent.
“Without diversity in healthcare, efforts to raise standards will be frustrated. It dawned on me quite early in my career that the pool of professionals was not diverse enough to offer the right care to the diverse population in London”.
However, Dr. Chopra feels that this issue has eased over time.
“Now, around 50 per cent of the healthcare workforce is comprised of women and the number of individuals from minority backgrounds in senior positions has increased.
“In my view, the more diverse your medical team, the better care you can offer”.
Going forward, Dr. Chopra hopes that the coronavirus pandemic will help raise awareness of our health not only in the forefront of the government’s thoughts, but also among the general populace.
Dr. Chopra said: “The skin cancer melanoma moves faster than lung cancer, but we do not see cigarette-style warnings being issued by the government to raise awareness among the population.
"For dermatologists, this is a huge challenge: a lack of awareness."
Dr. Chopra went on to cite an example campaign introduced in Australia which was successful in reducing the number of new melanoma cases, yet he feels the advice provided in the UK must be more nuanced.
“There is a fundamental difference between the UK and Australia in that we don’t get an awful lot of sun and down there, they have much more of it.
“The sun provides Vitamin D, which as a population we don’t get enough of. It is important to help ward off a number of internal conditions such as osteoporosis for example.
“So we must be balanced in the advice we give, rather than directly replicate Australia. I would recommend individuals in the UK enjoy the sun without protection for around 15 minutes, and then apply before spending more time exposed to the sun’s rays.”
Yet, for Dr. Chopra, the difference in awareness between both populations is the enduring issue.
"It is clear that in Australia they are much more aware of skin conditions because they have so much hot weather. Therefore, on the occasions Australians do develop skin cancers, it is often detected early. In the UK, due to the lack of awareness, often we detect these cancers at a later stage.
"On the issue of sunbeds, I would like to see more government action. Many melanoma sufferers I encounter under the age of 30 use sunbeds. It is a known carcinogen and we do not regulate it enough nor do we make people aware of the risks.
"We do need to be more self-aware with regards to our health and recent weeks have been a wake-up call. I hope we do not lose sight of that".
