Life as a clinical director: an insight

The clinical director (CD) is responsible for delivering high-quality patient-focused clinically effective healthcare services, which support the core principles of patient safety, and also serves as a conduit transmitting the trust's vision and objectives to clinical staff. The CD has to have a strategy to ensure that this is delivered without compromising patient care. He/she has to speak for all staff and ensure that the directorate strategy is aligned with the vision and strategy of the trust. In the opposite direction, the CD acts as a conduit through implementation of the departmental vision and strategy. To achieve these objectives, the CD works in close collaboration with the divisional triumvirate (executive [senior management team], divisional team [mid-level], directorate/departmental team), service manager, specialty leads, and senior nurses in addition to frontline consultant radiologists to ensure planning and delivery of robust clinical services within their areas and the entire trust. The role of the CD inherently requires "out-of-the-box" strategies, innovation, and influential communication skills for continuous service improvement and effective patient management pathways and flow. The CD ensures that appropriate medical workforce is available in the department to deliver high-quality care and maximise clinical efficiencies through effective deployment of available resources.