“There is pretty certainly nothing that I can claim to be solely responsible for. It’s all been Collaborative,” says Adrian McLachlan who hung up his stethoscope last year after 40 years service to the NHS.
And commenting in anticipation of December’s meeting, Adrian says, “I still feel a connection with the Collaborative and seem to be tolerated showing up for Breakfast meetings”.
The ‘retiring’ GP left with accolades including Chair of the NHS Lambeth Clinical Commissioning Group, Clinical and Care Professional Lead for the Living Well Network Alliance (the Alliance) and a founder member of the Lambeth Living Well Collaborative (The Collaborative) from which the Alliance was borne… as well as being instrumental in building the Lambeth Together Care Partnership.
“We are not just celebrating close to 40 years of service to patients but a wide range of achievements that have directly benefited thousands of residents in Lambeth and beyond, improving peoples lives for the better,” said Andrew Eyres, Strategic Director of Integrated Health and Care for South East London Integrated Care System at Adrian’s farewell celebration.
Adrian has established a “legacy of which he should most rightly be exceedingly proud and that will sit with many of us in this room to sustain and grow into the future,” he added.
This is how we do things round here…
This is ‘how we are doing things differently in Lambeth’, says Adrian proudly in a 2018 film celebrating the NHS’s 70th anniversary, paying homage to the innovative work of the flagship Collaborative that has shaped Lambeth Together.
Link: https://www.lambethcollaborative.org.uk/14665
“I became the name and face to represent a number of things, for quite a while,” says Adrian humbly looking back.
“I did my GP training in a practice in Camberwell, (he was born in Southwark and studied at Kings College)and was for some time the GP visiting a special needs’ unit that later became a homeless housing project, “where I once shared Christmas dinner with the residents”.
Medical cover to a Leonard Cheshire home and another care home for people with cerebral palsy followed, “so long ago that it was still called The Stars Organisation for Spastics (“SOS”), later to change its name to Scope”.
Mental health, addictions, dermatology and sexual health have been key in his work – in 2014 he commented that he had lived and worked through the whole history of HIV and Aids so far, “seeing it from a mystery, to the largest cause of death of my patients for a memorable time, to now, when I see it as a long term condition”.
Meanwhile his “ground-breaking work supporting the healthcare needs of homeless people is recognised across London …integrated services that work for the most disadvantaged are likely to work for everyone,” said Andrew Eyres at Adrian’s celebration.
Looking back
When he joined Hetherington Group Practice (then The New Surgery) in 1989, he “picked up the role of visiting GP, twice weekly at two hostels, Cedars Lodge and Lancelot Andrews House (Great Guildford Street), and running a surgery. Back then, there was a nurse in each hostel and they were run by DSS (Department of Health & Social Security).”
That model transformed eventually into the Three Boroughs Primary Healthcare Team, and today as the Health Inclusion Team.
After inheriting the role of GP Facilitator, over time he started “dabbling in elements of Londonwide homeless work. The roll out of the health access cards to try and support getting people registered with GPs was important.
The time chairing the CCG, “was never something I had planned to do, but kind of stumbled into it,” he says… “a remarkable learning opportunity, getting to work with incredibly diverse and wise people across many organisations.”
It was a time when HIV and Aids featured as a priority for Lambeth, with a particular emphasis on early diagnosis.
He was also part of the team that introduced the Local Care Record across GP practices, large NHS hospital trusts, community services and local authorities; work that won an award for Best Use of IT to Support Integrated Healthcare Services in 2016…“ but more importantly, it has made a difference to working lives and improving safety and effectiveness for patients,” says Andrew Eyres.
He has always heralded the work of carers… and on a lighter note helped to establish the Lammy Awards, a great day out recognising the inspiring work of Lambeth citizens.
Of plans for the future, Adrian… the natural collaborator, teamworker, life-long lover of big bikes, and more recently a cyclist… says, “I left being clear that I was stopping medical work, and indeed have now left the medical register. There is so much to catch up on, but who knows… may wish at some point to find something useful and part time to do.”
Meanwhile Adrian, pictured at Loughborough Farm/Platform Cafe Collaborative Breakfast, and the November 2023 Review event (pics: Kai Christodoulou-lee), is looking forward to December’s Collaborative Breakfast meeting.
Revisit some of the Collaborative breakfast meetings here
https://www.lambethcollaborative.org.uk/category/breakfastmeetings
Karen Hooper