Ollie Hart, a community focused vision of health and wellbeing

Ollie Hart is a GP at Sloan Medical Centre Sheffield, Director of Peak Health Coaching, Clinical Commissioning Lead, social media influencer, and innovation leader in healthcare and wellness.

His vision for the future of health and wellness in the UK involves inviting the individual and their community to take a more prominent role, as opposed to the healthcare system. All the research suggests that the impact of the system, based on a ‘medicalised model’ is far less than was imagined. The behaviour of the individual and the support provided to them by their community is the dominant factor in their health and wellbeing.

He believes the pandemic has demonstrated that alternative ways of doing things can be better: video appointments and the vaccine delivery model, involving collaboration between clinicians, volunteers and the community, are two examples.

Over time during his practice as a GP, Ollie discovered that the medical interventions he prescribed were often less effective than when he supported people in understanding their condition, and in adopting healthy behaviours. He learnt a lot of his health coaching skills in a pain clinic, where the drug treatment options were limited. He finds having good therapeutic relationships “recharging,” for him as well as his patients.

He set up Peak Health Coaching to support clinicians in health coaching, patient activation measurement (PAM), and social prescribing. Patient activation is about understanding where a patient is on their journey to empowerment, and tailoring their coaching and treatment accordingly. Social prescribing in its simplest form helps connect people to organisations within their community that might help them to initiate or sustain good behaviours. In a wider context, it is about providing equitable access and support to all members of a community.

General practice is “constantly redefining itself. We respond to need, and to changes in the evidence base.” He says “in our essence we are community-based organisations.” Link workers, health coaches, and care coordinators are all part of the current wave of change. Ollie believes GPs with health coaching knowledge are in a position to make a judgement call on the most beneficial use of their time with a particular patient, whether that is in understanding their context better, or whether it is in discussing a prescription for a new medication. Good health coaching can create time, by starting a patient on a path that he might then pursue outside of the consultation.

Ollie believes that health coaching can reduce health inequalities, but only if it is done with skilful consideration of the individual. If executed clumsily it can overwhelm the patient. He contends that there are no cultural barriers to health coaching, but the socio-economic circumstances of any community, irrespective of ethnicity, need to be carefully considered in its deployment.

Ollie was instrumental in setting up the Graves Park Park Run. He feels it is a great example of an initiative that once executed with skill and imagination takes on a life of its own. He says “what they tuned into in Park Run was that it was not just about the running and the exercise, it was about the connection and … the common purpose.”

Ollie says that the NHS and the current experiment in personalised care – the NHS has a target of recruiting 1,000 new link workers by the end of the 2021 – is a great example of learning by doing, somewhat similar to Park Run. He maintains that to promote an environment of innovation there has to be a degree of tolerance of risk, and a preparedness to accept failure. And whilst there has to be some acknowledgement of the potential downsides, if the system doesn’t innovate it misses the opportunity of improved approaches that may save lives.

Through his appearances on radio and television, and also on social media, Ollie is influencing the direction of the NHS and government. He doesn’t have a deliberate PR strategy, but he is taking opportunities as they arise in support of a mission to support people and communities to perform at their best. He constantly checks whether what he is doing is genuinely supporting his mission or ‘fuelling his ego.’

Ollie is an optimist by nature. He says “I’ve always had a positive internal dialogue” and he is generally compassionate with himself.

He recently passed on his role as an executive on Move More, Sheffield’s 20-year physical activity plan, to two of his GP colleagues. Though Move More has always been close to his heart, he says with such a long-term project you “need to keep the energy fresh and new peoples’ ideas flowing through… If you’re taking a leadership role, it’s important to know when it is time to bring other people in.” The new Move More [5-year] plan will focus more on the 20-25% of the population that are physically active for less than 30 minutes a week, and on the communities that most need support.

Ollie works as a clinical care network leader and as a clinical director. In these roles he tries less to give specific advice than to help people think clearly for themselves, and have the confidence to take tough decisions and, on occasion, experiment. It’s a coaching approach to leadership.

Ollie’s self-care regime revolves around physical exercise, the family, and nature. He cycles, runs on the hills of the Peak District, and takes walks with his family.

The book ‘Being Mortal’ by Atul Gawande, which he read shortly after his father’s death, made a big impression on Ollie. He loves the Fairhealth podcast (https://fairhealth.org.uk/podcasts/) and Ranjan Chatterjee’s the Four Pillars of Health (https://drchatterjee.com/blog/category/podcast/). Sometimes he likes to take in non-health related material, for example The Knowledge Project (https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/). “It keeps your curiosity in life going.”

He says he wouldn’t give his 20-year old self any advice. For one thing, there’s too many people in the world giving advice. Life’s a genuine adventure and you generally have to make your own mistakes. Ollie says “I’d just let myself make the same mistakes again and enjoy the journey.”