‘So what’s it like being CMO?’
I am asked this question a lot – along with ‘How’s the new job?’ and (just to remind us that we shouldn’t use acronyms) – ‘What’s a CMO?’
I became the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland in April this year. I am an obstetrician and gynaecologist which is a much easier job to explain as people understand delivering babies.
My daughter once said (when aged 4) when I was going off for a night shift on the labour ward ‘Mummy – when you are helping the ladies with their babies tonight are you going to chop them out or are they going to pop out by themselves?’
Protect, sustain and enhance
The role of Chief Medical Officer doesn’t seem to have such a neat definition.
The job description when I applied described the CMO as the chief adviser to Scottish Ministers on a wide range of issues to protect, sustain and enhance the health of the population and foster professionalism and excellence in medical practice in Scotland. Which sounds fairly straightforward!
What this means in reality is that no two days are the same which is why this job for me is one of the best jobs in the world.
For example, this week I have talked about everything from e-cigarettes to controlling anti-microbial resistance in Scotland. 
I have met with senior staff from the General Medical Council, filmed a piece for an influenza pandemic practice exercise, discussed neurosurgical services, children’s services and dermatology and met with visitors from the USA who are teaching quality improvement in Scotland.
Tomorrow morning I am off to my antenatal clinic and will then try to find time to prepare for the three lectures I am giving shortly. This includes a speech on obstetric anaesthesia for an international anaesthetic conference, as well as one on the harms of alcohol in young people and another on our ambition to deliver outpatient integration.
The extra mile
I am struck by the passion those working in the NHS have and their willingness to go the extra mile. 
In recent visits and experiences I have seen the theatre staff who are able to make every pregnant woman feel that her baby is very special even at the end of a long shift, the doctor who once again volunteers to cover for a colleague, the receptionist who made cups of tea for the family who had travelled a long way and had a long wait and the nurse who came back after days off and made time to visit the patient who had been transferred to another ward.
Our NHS is constantly changing but this is not new. Nye Bevan, who launched the NHS in July 1948, is quoted as saying “This service must always be changing, growing and improving; it must always appear to be inadequate”. This is an exciting time to be in NHS Scotland. 
In the Scottish Government we are building up a national clinical strategy for Scotland and recently launched our national Healthier Scotland conversation which is gaining people’s views on what they want their NHS of the future to look like.
You can get involved and have your voice heard by visiting: http://healthier.scot/. In addition, we have integrated health and social care services through the introduction of Integration Joint Boards, are reducing delayed discharges, undergoing a review of out of hours services, and examining how we provide services across Scotland through our seven day services taskforce.
All of these and more will influence how we deliver healthcare in the future.
Healthcare is at the front of people’s minds
Our health is very important – our question on greeting people is often ‘How are you?’ – which reflects the priority we place on good health in our society. 
The importance of health is not always recognised until it disappears through age and frailty, accident or from long term illness or conditions such as infection or cancer and this is when the provision of high quality healthcare is at the front of people’s minds.
Our job is a difficult one, we work in a service industry in which our ‘customers’ do not want to be the recipients of our service and wish to leave it as soon as possible, a service industry in which we work hard to prevent our customers from ever needing us in the first place and try to ensure they don’t come back for as long as possible, a service industry in which the only bonuses are the smiles and thanks from our customers for a job well done.
‘Why do we do it?’ you might ask. Well, perhaps that is why…
This week’s blog was by @CathCalderwood1 (Dr Catherine Calderwood), Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, Scottish Government.
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