We spoke to Dr Chris White, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) director and staff governor at CUH.
Tell us about your background and how you came to work for the NHS?
I was originally a scientist before I transferred into management, primarily in personnel roles. I joined the NHS as a director of operations and HR in 1989. Following this I joined the Department of Health as a deputy head of performance. I was offered the post to head up intervention for under-performing NHS Trusts in the South of England, but chose to work directly with Trusts and private healthcare on turnaround instead, as I thought that this would be more satisfying.
What inspired you to pursue a career in healthcare?
Prior to working for the NHS I was the personnel director in Portugal for the world’s largest sweet maker. It was an interesting company to work for and I loved Portugal, but healthcare is much more rewarding.
What we do changes lives. Increasing tooth decay and diabetes does too but not in a positive way.
Tell us about your journey at CUH.
I joined CUH to work on in vitro fertilisation (IVF) for five weeks. That was over five years ago and I enjoyed it so much that I applied to join permanently. It is my perfect job because of the mix of working with exceptional scientists, clinicians is backed up by great support from central teams like estates, finance and HR.
IVF is an exciting specialty as it is changing so much. This is because the current success rates are very low compared to other areas of elective medicine. For many patients, the success rates are under 10% and so there is real potential to carry out research and development that could transform outcomes internationally.
What are your current role and responsibilities at CUH?
Our in vitro fertilisation (IVF) team is made up of clinicians, scientists and support staff in roughly equal numbers. My job is to work with the team to ensure that we achieve exceptional success rates and attract sufficient patients to hit our surplus target. It is tough as many private IVF units are making large losses due to the downturn in the economy.
A key challenge is that there are so few training places for scientists and clinicians in IVF in the UK, so we have to ‘grow our own’. For our size we have the largest scientific training programme in the UK and we are the only clinic approved by the General Medical Council (GMC) to sponsor junior doctors from overseas who wish to train in IVF.
One of the most exciting areas of research is with Wellcome Sanger where we are working on the genetics of sperm. This grew out of their research that showed that some men that had cancer were creating some sperm with really serious mutations - due to the cancer drugs they had taken. They could even identify what drug the man had taken by the mutations caused. This research will be of international significance.
What motivated you to become a staff governor, and what are your main responsibilities in this role?
I had two principal reasons for standing to be a governor. Firstly, Cambridge has the potential to be rated highly for all services, this is because it is able to recruit so many truly brilliant staff and has the advantage of links to the university and research bodies.
Secondly the scale of the savings target as this could result in quality dropping if savings are made in the wrong areas. I believe that with the right investment, plan and support, CUH can excel in all areas and achieve what is needed financially.
I was elected as a staff governor to the Council of Governors in July 2024.
As a staff governor, I represent staff members and hold the chair and non-executive directors (NEDs) to account, drawing on my experience working at the Department of Health on performance and with Trusts on turnaround.
It is irrefutable that CUH has done exceptionally well by getting two new hospitals approved, particularly as this was done at the same time as hitting financial targets and achieving good results in so many areas. No Trust in the UK has done well in everything, however others are doing well in areas we need to improve.
Our job as governors is to ensure that the non-executive directors and chair are doing everything practicable to enable CUH staff to deliver for patients in all areas.
What does a typical day look like for you?
My job is extremely varied – which I love. Standard tasks include checking activity and income, handling patient issues and difficulties that staff have. Most of my time is spent working on improving outcomes and implementing plans to achieve targets. Our plan is to continue to grow and this is not easy because our clinic competes with private services for NHS and private patients. This means that we have to achieve excellent results and provide value for money, private patients will go elsewhere and NHS patients will go wherever results appear the best.
Why do you like working at CUH?
In commercial units the IVF director is responsible to private equity investors and here it is to the director of commercial development and operations director for Division E. In the commercial units I have run, the focus tends to be on short term measures to increase the value of the service so it can be sold to the next investor. This can lead to short term decisions rather than improving success rates.
At Cambridge IVF, we have focused on achieving results that were as good as the best internationally and growing the service. As a result of focusing on quality and providing value for money our activity has increased despite the financial downturn – unlike many commercial IVF units.
What have you learned from the staff governor role that you didn’t know before?
The governors, non-executive directors and chair are a very impressive group of people. We have some really distinguished clinicians, scientists and leaders in their own fields and their experience is obviously invaluable. The reason staff governors are so important is that they understand what is happening in the Trust day to day – both what is great and what needs improving. This is why in Germany a company of our size is required to have half of their main board as staff governors. This shows how important staff governors are and that we really can make such a difference.
What was the process to apply to become a staff governor?
Applying to be a staff governor was easy. All you do is fill the form in and hope staff vote for you. I found it staggering how many staff voted.
What advice would you give to other CUH staff considering becoming a staff governor?
Firstly do not doubt yourself - there is a lot of support for new governors and the Trust secretary and team help organise everything you need including thorough briefings, getting you copies of reports etc. If you think about it, as we work for the Trust we inevitably know a lot more about the NHS than many new governors.
Secondly think about what you can add that will enable governors to be as effective as possible at monitoring the performance of the chair and non-executive directors and also how you can assist with the approval of major projects.
Finally I should have told more people that I applied, but I found this quite difficult.