OU on the BBC: Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS? - Why the OU got involved

Production team

Why would the Open University get involved with a documentary about sending Gerry Robinson in to tackle waiting lists in the NHS? Certainly we did have some concerns as we opened discussions with the BBC. Would this just end up being another piece of journalism attacking the NHS? Would Gerry be portrayed as a hero from the private sector who had all the answers to the problems of public sector management? Would the programmes, as so often in the media, provide a ridiculously simplistic picture of this large and complex organisation?

However, the more we talked with the BBC team and with Gerry, the more we became convinced that we all had some common goals:

• to raise the quality of debate about the NHS and give people insight into the real and systemic difficulties of managing performance and change in such a large and complex organisation;
• to question whether rather than suffering from too many managers, the NHS has too little effective management and leadership.

Talking to Gerry it became clear that he did not believe he had all the answers. He did, however, believe passionately that effective management is all about recognising that an organisation's employees often already have the solutions to problems. They just need the opportunity to voice them and support to put them into practice. Finally Gerry's planned high level of engagement - 2 days per week for 6 months - provided confidence that that we could provide a real insight into ways of improving performance; not only in the NHS, but in any large organisation. We are delighted with the way in which this series addresses these goals, but you of course must be the final judge.

Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS? in more depth: