Professor Martin Vernon
From Influence to Impact: Leading Change for an Ageing Society
The future of the NHS will be determined by how well we care for older people.
Population ageing is transforming healthcare. More people are living longer, often with frailty, dementia and multiple long-term conditions. Older people are the greatest users of health and care services, yet too often experience fragmented care insufficient for their needs or preferences, delayed access to long term support and services designed around diseases rather than people.
At this pivotal moment, the British Geriatrics Society has an unprecedented opportunity to shape healthcare reform across the United Kingdom. We have clinical expertise, evidence and credibility to influence policy, improve services and champion better outcomes for older people across all four countries. My long-standing ambition is to maximise that influence and translate it into lasting impact.
I am standing for President-Elect because I believe the BGS should be the authoritative voice on ageing and older people's healthcare and a leading force for positive change across health and care systems nationally.
Throughout more than three decades as a geriatrician, clinical leader, academic and national policymaker, I have worked to improve care for older people at local, regional and national level.
As National Clinical Director for Older People at NHS England, I led the development of the NHS Ageing Well Programme, helping establish many of the principles that underpin today's neighbourhood health programme in England. I championed national scale frailty identification and assessment in primary care, supported investment in community-based services and helped drive the expansion of urgent community responses and same-day emergency frailty care across England.
Alongside national leadership, I have remained committed to frontline practice and service transformation. I have led innovative cross-sector developments in Greater Manchester, supported digitally enabled care home services and virtual wards during the pandemic, and currently lead a geriatric oncology service at The Christie with key focus on developing neighbourhood oncology at scale.
My work has also focused on research, education and policy. Through NHS England, NICE, my involvement in funded research programmes, the NHS Northwest Clinical Senate and as founding clinical lead for the Academic Centre for Healthy Ageing, I have sought to bring evidence, policy and practice together to improve outcomes for older people. More recently, I have represented the BGS nationally on complex ethical and legal issues, including assisted dying, adult safeguarding and end-of-life care.
I have spent my career turning ideas into policy, policy into services, and services into better outcomes for older people. Now I want to do the same for the British Geriatrics Society.
To achieve this, I have five key ambitions:
First, shaping NHS reform around the needs of older people.
The BGS must be at the centre of national discussions on neighbourhood health services, integrated care, population health management and community-based care models.
Second, championing healthy ageing and prevention.
The BGS should be a leading voice for healthy ageing, rehabilitation, proactive frailty management and reducing health and care inequalities.
Third, strengthening the influence and reach of the BGS.
I want the BGS to be the organisation policymakers turn to first when seeking solutions to the challenges of an ageing society.
Fourth, promoting excellence through research, innovation and education.
We must continue to define and champion the highest standards of care and accelerate implementation of evidence-based practice.
Fifth, developing the workforce of the future.
We must support multidisciplinary education, leadership development and workforce growth to meet future demand for complex health care.
The coming decade will define how society responds to population ageing.
The BGS should not simply respond to that change. We should lead it.
I have spent my career bringing together clinicians, policymakers, researchers and health system leaders to deliver better outcomes for older people. As President Elect and President, I will bring that same energy, influence, drive and commitment to the British Geriatrics Society.
Together, we can turn influence into impact and ensure older people's healthcare becomes one of the defining successes of NHS reforms across the country.
