The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and deepened a crisis in our nation’s healthcare, with NHS waiting lists for routine treatments set to rise to 10million within the next 12 months. In response to this, I’ve brought together a new collective comprising some of the best minds within the business, financial, medical and political sectors. Under the banner of the ‘Global Reset 2022’, we are combining forces to rethink the UK’s outdated, underfunded medical model and build a revolutionary new national preventative healthcare system underpinned by pharmacies.
I’ve called it the ‘Global Reset 2022’, as a direct reference to the ‘Great Reset’ of the World Economic Forum, convened to improve the state of the post-pandemic world. While the latter has an all-encompassing remit, my Global Reset 2022 is mandated to specifically address the crisis in healthcare – while similarly recognising that the Covid-19 pandemic has provided the tipping point for a revolution in thinking.
The pandemic brought into sharp relief the parlous state of our overburdened healthcare systems. Notable waiting lists also exist to see a GP. We need to support GPs to ensure waiting lists don’t lead to unnecessary suffering and deaths.
Unfortunately, the government’s answer of promising more hospitals and GP surgeries won’t help, and just means households will be paying even more in tax to fund this inefficient system. I believe that now is the time to address the fundamental issue: we need to build a preventative healthcare system, rather than the current reactive one, which is costly and inefficient.
I’ve assembled a group of visionaries, quite frankly people with astonishing talents and a track record in implementing radical change, with a remit to radically rethink the current medical model. And, at the heart of this model, will be the community pharmacist.Pharmacists are the unsung heroes of healthcare. The pandemic highlighted this, as GPs couldn’t operate as usual and the burden fell on pharmacies to keep their doors open and treat and refer patients.
We’re talking about highly qualified, highly skilled clinicians who have been chronically underutilised until now. They have the capacity and the motivation to offer a wide range of clinical and wellbeing services instore, relieving the burden on GPs.
Crucially, they are held in a position of deep trust by their communities, often by generations of the same family. They are ideally placed to diagnose and treat conditions before they become serious; many already work closely with GPs as Independent Prescribers, prescribing medicines and making referrals themselves.
Pharmacies also form a robust infrastructure across all cities, towns and villages, meaning they are in the perfect position to take a leading role in primary care. With Alitam, we plan to move towards a one-stop-shop of health services and we have already begun that journey.
And, while we are holding onto the advanced community pharmacies within Alitam, we are now taking things to the next level with a planned roll-out of ‘Super Pharmacies’ in key cities across the UK and Ireland. Within the next five years these will offer everything from highly regulated ophthalmic and audiology services to physiotherapy and even midwife-led care.
The Global Reset 2022 is formed under the aegis of Alitam; all who have joined are inspired to similarly address healthcare from a preventative point of view—something which represents a world-first. They all believe in the drive for radical change, and believe in the power of us working collectively to get things done.
I’ve headhunted participants from a wide variety of backgrounds, bringing diverse experiences and enviable skills to the table. Sir Ken Olisa, the current Lord Lieutenant of London, is a shining example of business brilliance and philanthropy in the UK—for which he earned a knighthood in 2018. As Director of Thomson Reuters, he was the first British-born black man to serve as a director of a FTSE100 company.
In 2016 he was named Number 1 in the Powerlist’s roster of the UK’s most influential black people. He is currently a non-executive board member of Huawei and chairman of Alitam, where he plays an instrumental role in driving their ‘Pharmacy of the Future’ vision.
Also on board is Dhruv Patel OBE, the renowned businessman, community organiser and politician, whose focus is on industry-wide co-operation, collaboration and consensus.
Patel is no stranger to the response to the pandemic. In 2020, he supported the establishment of the London Communities Response Fund to help provide money for organisations facing immediate financial pressures as a result of Covid-19.
Bharti Patel, the most recent addition to the Alitam board, brings a unique wealth of experience spanning pharmaceuticals, multiple retail and independent pharmacy, homecare and NHS primary and secondary care.
As the former group executive director for Avicenna she interacted with over 1,000 pharmacies, and managed a £1.4bn budget during her time at Lloyds Pharmacy. She is widely renowned within the pharmacy industry for her strong leadership, commercial acumen and ability to ‘join the dots’ to create opportunities for innovation and strategic partnerships.
She is joined by Antony Isaacs, one of the city’s foremost movers and shakers and the former MD of HSBC Global Banking and Markets. He brings his strategic thinking and experience of complex financial deals to the collective. In an impressive 20-year career, his positions have ranged from Head of UK ECM at Credit Suisse to various managing director positions including at leading investment bank Canaccord Genuity.
Also hailing from the financial world is Zach Brech. Having personally managed the complex and high-profile merger of Alliance Unichem and Boots, he brings great insight and know-how regarding M&A deals in the world of pharmacy. As the former MD of Credit Suisse, he played a key role in a number of high-profile business transactions including Barclays’ offer for ABN AMRO, and the recapitalisation of Lloyds and HBOS by the UK government.
Both Isaacs and Brech are vocal and passionate about the need for a paradigm-shift in healthcare provision. Complementing this impressive roster is Bob Stebbings, the first director of Xeinadin Group.
Xeinadin was my first OMMM and Stebbings played an instrumental role in setting up the record-breaking multiple merger of 122 British and Irish accountancy firms in just 256 working days—in effect, building a top accountancy firm ‘overnight’.
All of these people are outstanding in their own right. So under the banner of the Global Reset 2022 there’s no limit to what we can achieve. And we all come to the table with a huge sense of urgency—the need now is so great. Alitam is demonstrating a highly actionable route forward for preventative healthcare which truly serves our people’s needs.
I want us to be the first nations in the world to offer this revolutionary—yet easily implemented—preventative healthcare solution. All of us are resolute in our determination to make it happen, and create a healthier life, for everyone.
While momentum behind the Global Reset 2022 is extremely high, this is just the beginning. I’m currently in the process of identifying and interviewing over 50 prominent business people, including several highly experienced, and visionary, leaders of the medical world, to be a part of this disruptive Global Reset 2022 healthcare movement—a radical overhaul which will have pharmacy at its heart.
