Issue 130 face to face

F2F

Ursula meets amazing people who influence nutrition policies and practices in the UK.

FACE TO FACE Ursula meets: Ursula Arens Writer; Nutrition & Dietetics Ursula has a degree in dietetics, and currently works as a freelance nutrition writer. She has been a columnist on nutrition for more than 30 years.

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FARHAT HAMID Head of Nutrition and Dietetics, Brent Public Health Advocate

There are many reasons to eat cake: to share celebration; because it tastes wonderful; to self-comfort after exertion or stress; or, in my meeting with dietitian Farhat Hamid, because the café was deserted and we needed to push the order up beyond cups of tea, as a way of paying table rent. And it was delicious warm apple strudel with custard: just the thing to sweeten our discussions about dietetics.

Farhat is the Head of Nutrition and Dietetics for Brent, at London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, and clearly enjoys grabbing every opportunity to promote the work of the dietetic profession. You could describe her as pushy, or you could choose other descriptions with the letter ‘P’: pro-active, persuasive and passionate. Getting things done is clearly what drives Farhat and she shares her long career of achievements with me.

She came from Pakistan to the UK as a young teenager and had the dual challenges of learning a new culture and language. Her hard work led to four great A-levels and a careers teacher’s random suggestion led Farhat to choose to study Dietetics. She really enjoyed her student days at the University or Surrey. “I particularly loved my placement with the infant formula company Milupa. They not only gave me some opportunities to travel across the UK, but also to lead on various creative projects,” said Farhat.

Her first job was at Sandwell Hospital in the Midlands, followed by a job in

www.NHDmag.com December 2017/January 2018 - Issue 130

the London borough of Haringey. The latter was a community post, so involved health education, and support for diverse specialist services such as mental health, infant nutrition or the then early days of HIV care. “Public health projects have always excited me the most, and my interest was sparked then,” said Farhat.

In 1989, Farhat became Chief Dietitian at Parkside Health NHS Trust. This remains her geographical patch, but, of course, much has changed, not least that the number of dietitians employed has grown from three to 46. She lists many additional managerial responsibilities, such as being General Manager for Long Term Conditions, Chair of a Practice Based Commissioning Cluster and Chair of the Professional Executive Committee: not being familiar with NHS decision structures, I try to clasp these many roles, but they all escape my mind like released birds. But the pattern is very clear: Farhat always seeks to step into challenging roles to seize greater influence and recognition for the dietetic profession. “Some of these roles were new and seemed scary. It was comforting to find that other Board members felt the same and we all faced a learning curve whilst working with multi-million pound budgets. However, you always come out stronger and ready to face even more difficult challenges,” said Farhat.

Had she had any time-out in her 28-year period at Brent? Aside from three maternity breaks, the answer is, “No. I did consider going part-time, but decided that I would just be doing the same work load in fewer days, so that did not seem sensible. I did have an 18-month secondment at the Department of Health, as part of The Top Talent NHS Leadership programme. I was particularly involved with projects supporting NHS-wide equality and diversity policies, and really enjoyed getting nationwide perspectives on difficult issues.”

She is one of 13 national advocates under a scheme to increase the participation of allied health professionals in public health (captured as AHP4PH; no doubt someone will claim this as a car number plate). She applied by submitting a project describing a community-based course for black and minority ethnic participants diagnosed with prediabetes. Data of excellent attendance and improved health evaluations impressed the AHP4PH project team, and Farhat is keen to continue these lifestyle courses. Her only frustration is that many such projects are occasional events when small funding amounts become available, rather than becoming firm longer-term commitments built into core NHS services. In fact, she has declined some projects where there is an imbalance between settingup costs and recruitment efforts and small oneoff funds offered. But Farhat is not the first NHS manager facing high service demands with finite resources.

Another achievement is her prize as ‘Innovator of the Year 2017’ at the Trust Excellence Awards.

She constantly seeks diverse funding sources and has clearly mastered the arts of tendering and writing business plans. She won all of the four bids she submitted in recent years, which brought in sufficient funding to pay for 13 additional dietetic posts. Of course, this is a great success for northwest Londoners, who now have greater access to dietetic services. But the projects also led to a series

of publications resulting in a clinically effective intensive lifestyle programme that Farhat has mainstreamed in her local dietetic service.

Farhat feels that the British Dietetic Association is currently better and stronger at supporting its members, and she is a member of the steering group of the Future Dietitian 2025 project (turn to our Prof Blog on page 48 for more on this project). This is an exciting opportunity to consider possibilities as well as threats to the profession and find ways to raise our visibility amongst medical colleagues and in the media. The issues she particularly supports are greater diversity within the profession: ethnically, culturally and in attracting more men into dietetics.

“Dietitians can sometimes be a bit demure and passive and a greater mix of people would support the vigour of the whole profession,” said Fahrat.

She is also keen to pull more dietetic services out of hospitals and into more accessible and familiar community settings supporting the national policy of the Five Year Forward View. This is especially important at providing care for hard-to-reach population groups.

She supports better training for student dietitians: to think laterally and to think outside of boxes; to become more entrepreneurial and risk taking. She is all of these things, but I query whether these skills and attributes can be taught.

She laughs because I am being obtuse and insists that she does much to push and support her students and staff into greater actions and participation. But she agrees that perhaps these are not solely curriculum items. She hints that two great role models in her life - her ever-supportive father and her husband - may have been her greatest teachers (but they are not available to other dietitians!).

As I walked back to the underground, I noticed graffiti sprayed on the wall. It proclaimed, ‘carpe diem’. This was more likely to have been done by some teenager; had it been Farhat, it would have been, carpe diem dietetica.

If you would like to suggest a F2F date

(someone who is a ‘shaker and mover’ in UK nutrition) for Ursula, please contact:

info@networkhealthgroup.co.uk www.NHDmag.com December 2017/January 2018 - Issue 130

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