David Oliver (doctor)

David Oliver MA MD FRCP is a British physician specialising in the geriatric medicine and acute general internal medicine. He is the current President of the British Geriatrics Society, Visiting Professor of Medicine for Older People in the School of Community and Health Sciences at City University London and a King's Fund Senior Visiting Fellow. He was formerly the UK Department of Health National Clinical Director for Older People's Services from 2009 to 2013. He is a researcher, writer, teacher and lecturer on services for older people and a regular blogger, columnist and media commentator. He was recently elected as Clinical Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

Early life and postgraduate clinical training

He attended a state primary school, Northern Moor and Northenden in Manchester. He then attended Manchester Grammar School.^[1]

He attended The Queen's College Oxford University, receiving a BA in Physiological Sciences) in 1987. He then moved to Trinity Hall Cambridge University, obtaining a Medical Degree (MB, B. Chir) in 1989. Until 1998 he worked a number of trainee doctor posts in Epping, Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Guy's Hospital London, Hither Green Hospital, St George's Hospital London, Conquest Hospital Hastings, St Thomas' Hospital, London and Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

He has gained several post-graduate qualifications, including: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), MD (Research Doctorate - London), MA Health Management (London), MSC Health Leadership (London), MA Health Care Ethics and Law (Manchester), Dip. Med. Ed. (London).

Senior clinical role

He gained his Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training in (General Internal and Geriatric Medicine) London in 1998. He initially worked in South London then from 2004 he held a General Internal Medicine position in Reading, now part of the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust,^[2]

Academic and research activities

Oliver began his research career whilst a registrar at St Thomas' Hospital in London. He gained his research doctorate from the University of London in 2001. He was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social care at the University of Reading from 2004 to 2009 alongside his consultant contract at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust. He has been involved with City University London.^[3] He is a visiting Professor at the University of Surrey.^[4]

He has published extensively on subjects such as health services for older people, age discrimination, ethical and legal issues in old age and the prevention and treatment of falls and fractures, risk prediction tools, restraints and bedrails. He has published over 100 original papers, systematic reviews, book chapters, editorials and personal views in scientific journals and been a co-investigator on several grant-funded research studies.

Oliver became far less research active after taking on his Department of Health Role in 2009 but is still involved in occasional research projects, including the ongoing NIHR-funded "Who Knows Best" study in conjunction with the University of Birmingham School of Health Management.

In his University role, he teaches on postgraduate modules in leadership, patient safety and health policy and supervises research students. He has also taught applied health care ethics and law and on training programmes for Independent Nurse Prescribing and Community Nursing whilst at the University of Reading.

Oliver has examined or supervised PhD students from clinical backgrounds, sat on trial steering committees and carried out peer reviews for journals.

He has delivered lectures at conferences in the UK and internationally.

National leadership and advisory roles

Alongside his clinical work Oliver was on secondment to the Department of Health from 2009 to 2013, first as specialist clinical advisor leading the national programme of work on Falls and Bone Health^[5] and then as National Clinical Director for Older Peoples Services.^[6] In his government role he developed national policies around the care of older people, advised Ministers and officials and provided assistance to other clinicians with their own local services. He stood down to take on his role as BGS President-Elect, when National Clinical Director roles moved from the Department of Health to NHS England.

He is now seconded for one day a week to the NHS Emergency Care Intensive Support Team (ECIST) advising hospitals and health economies on their acute and community care pathways for older people. In his work for the King's Fund, he runs conferences and workshops for clinical teams and has also advised several health economies on improving care for older people.

He became President of the British Geriatrics Society, in November 2014, having been appointed for a 2-year period.^[7] The society is a membership organisation of 3000 doctors and he previously held other roles in the society: Honorary Secretary, Chair of the Falls and Bone Health Section. He has a role within the Royal College of Physicians as the lead for the geriatrics speciality in the London College and a member of College Council. He was elected to the role of Clinical Vice President of the Royal College in July 2016.

Internationally, Oliver has helped train the first three waves of Taiwanese geriatricians in conjunction with the Taiwan Veteran's Administration and has acted as an external critical friend to the Australian Safety Council Falls Guideline Group. He has also held meetings with officials from the Singaporean government advising on services for older people.

Opinions, media and commentary

Since July 2015 he has written a weekly freelance column for The BMJ called "Acute Perspective". Oliver has written blogs for the King's Fund,^[8] The BMJ website,^[9] the British Geriatrics Society and guest blogs for other sites such as the Nuffield Trust. He writes regular opinion pieces for the Health Service Journal and BMJ and others in the national and professional press. He regularly comments on services for older people in print and broadcast media. He has appeared on BBC 1 (The Big Questions, News); BBC News Channel, BBC Radio 4 and 5 and BBC World Service, on Sky News and on numerous local radio stations. He has been quoted in The Independent, The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror and Daily Mail. He was written for several other outlets in professional and general press.

He is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the King's Fund.^[8] In 2014, he was the lead author of the keynote Kings Fund Paper "Making Health and Care Systems fit for an Ageing Population".^[10] He was also one of the commissioners for the Health Service Journal "Commission on Hospital Care for Frail Older People".^[11] He has campaigned on discrimination against older people ^[12] in the British National Health Service, against the attitude being that the person is old and there is nothing that can be done about it.^[13] He challenges plans for large reductions in older people in acute hospitals,^[14] saying it is "absolute la la land to think we’re going to be in a situation any time soon where older people don’t still keep piling through the doors of general hospitals."^[15][16] He has also written about the need to focus more on healthy ageing,^[17] to make health and care professionals better trained in the care of older people.^[18] He has criticised the large NHS spend on management consultancy ^[19] and pushed the case for NHS staff to learn more from other organisations within the NHS,^[20] criticised the idea that more aggressive regulation and inspection and "accountability" can bring about quality improvement in services ^[21] and attacked contestible but prevalent "groupthink" and oft repeated "factoids" from the health policy "commentariat" ^[22] and made the case for improving the care for older people in nursing homes rather than pretending no-one will ever need or want to be admitted to one.^[23]

Awards and honours

In 2014, he was named by the Health Service Journal as one of the top 100 Clinical Leaders in England^[24] and as one of the top 50 Leaders in Integrated Care.^[25]

References