Page 72 - RADC 2020

Command and Staff Experiences
Lt Col J Francis
I will confess that I had always harboured a degree of baseless enmity towards Army dentists who opted to step away from
the surgery. As a proudly wet-fingered dentist, I enjoy the challenges inherent with delivering care to our indisputably unique patient base and sensed that the ‘big Army’, full of square-jawed, steel-eyed dealers of death (and J4) was no place for a self-declared clinician.
However, the APC tombola had plans of which I had no sight. A subtle trim to RADC OF4 lines led to there being one less chair when the music stopped and an offer of
a RAC(M) job was forthcoming. With the sum total of my staff training having been delivered in a coma-inducing lecture theatre at RMAS 16 years previously, I found myself as SO1 Clinical Implementation and Head of the Clinical Information Exploitation Team at the DMS Medical Directorate in Edgbaston.
It would now be normal practice to list
all my responsibilities, my achievements
and lessons learned (they are not equally distributed). However, the salient point that needs to be made is that the range of activity has been vast. At one extreme it has been mundane; being charged with cohering Clinical Guidance for Operations, being an Information Asset Owner, in charge of Clinical Policy development. None of these were familiar to me, but we have all had to learn new tricks to get where we are. Picks from the other end of the spectrum were leading the DMS contribution to DSEI, Europe’s largest Defence Expo, or representing StratComd at the inaugural convocation with India’s Integrated Defence Command in New Delhi. There’s no playbook, you just have to apply common sense, add what you can, and be ever mindful that as a member of
the Army and the Dental Profession you are game for a challenge.
One of the most rewarding projects during my tenure has involved establishing jHubMed. JFC’s Innovation Hub (jHub)
jHubMed launch
was set-up in 2018 and from the outset medical projects predominated. COMD JFC recognised this and expanded the venture to offer the first franchise to JMG. Contrary to widely held beliefs that we exist to fund others’ ideas, or served to circumvent the established procurement process, jHubMed was charged with addressing appreciable deficiencies in equipment or training by scouring the market for solutions that could be adopted or repurposed, piloting them at pace, then presenting the outcome to the 4* Board for further exploration or adoption into core. It has permitted a delve through the architecture of both JMG and StratComd in addition to their constituent networks; it has been both enlightening and overwhelming,
I received two invaluable snippets of advice from other members of the RADC already employed within the Command
and Staff (C&S). First, your initial six months are spent with your eyes on stalks trying to make sense of the world around you. By
the time you emerge from this chaotic state, others have joined, you are established and have morphed into a source of knowledge; you just haven’t realised you have made
that giant step. Second, in contrast to the clinical domain, nobody is in your waiting room. Yes, deadlines predominate and the workload ebbs and flows, but your working day is not compartmentalised into 10 minute slots; you manage your outputs in the most effective way you see fit. It is no more nor less of a treadmill, but it is one where you are free to apply some personality to the mode in which outputs are delivered.
So, what next? I have been fortunate to be able to continue some clinical dentistry during my tenure so keeping the door ajar for a return to practice. However, I believe the opportunities that present within the C&S domain demand further exploration.
I have been fortunate to gain selection to attend ACSC and hope subsequently to more formally interweave clinical experience
Lt Col Francis ‘glowing’ at the Taj Mahal
with developing Staff competence to add value within JMG and support the work of the RADC.
I would not suggest for a moment that C&S is for everyone; the core of our Corps’ business is clinical delivery and that is where we must dedicate most resources. Nonetheless, should you harbour an interest and the opportunity presents, grasp it.
UK delegation at India’s Manekshaw Centre
Refining the small print
70 RADC BULLETIN 2020
DSEI Live demo of FST
jHubMed hackathon judging panel
C&S JOBS