Five Minutes With.. Shabir Datoo

Tell us a little bit more about yourself, your background and experience:

Since graduating from Loughborough University, having studied Computer Science and Business Management I have worked in various business improvement-based roles at both large multinational organisations and small businesses, all of which have given me great insight into the culture of companies and people, which forms the foundations of embedding sustainable improvement.

The later part of my career has been working within the healthcare sector in both primary and secondary care providers as well as private organisations and national bodies.

I have previously worked with a number of companies within their healthcare departments, driving improvement across healthcare services, focusing on process efficiency and cost reduction.

However, I’ve also worked in IT outsourcing and business improvement. Therefore, I bring together not just the traditional side of consulting and improvement, but also bringing in the technology element which can be a great enabler for change.

Could you explain your role within Develop Consulting and what your speciality is?

Within DC I have wear many hats, one being a coach working with GP Practices and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) to embed sustainable improvement cultures, whilst also making changes to the way they work to save time, improve access and patient care.

I am also a consultant working with our healthcare clients to achieve their goals and objectives through traditional consultancy work utilising data and technology to pinpoint the opportunities and possible solutions. I like to get hands on with the data and problems and implement the solutions instead of just pointing them out.

Have you noticed many changes working within the care sector since COVID-19 hit?

It’s been quite a fast-moving time, especially in adopting new technologies. Practices have had to change the way they engage with patients, moving away from the traditional limited booking system to more dynamic ways of seeing patients more flexibly and remotely through Triage and digital systems. They have implemented a lot of changes that would have taken years to do, however this rapid change has meant that not all solutions have been thoroughly thought through, or tested properly and will now need to be reviewed, tweaked and improved to remove some of the issues that are now arising as patients are getting more comfortable with the changes.

How do you think the care sector will change now as we begin to come out of the pandemic?

I don’t think that practices want to go back to life pre-covid and it isn’t a good idea to go back. They are now able to see more patients, more efficiently and effectively. But now it is about stabilising and streamlining these processes. It’s also about perfecting these changes, and that is also where we come in. They need to balance their demand and capacity.

With all these new systems they have implemented they now have the access to more data that they can use make informed decisions. They may need help in sifting through the data and understanding what is useful and how to use it, but we can help them with that.

What is the most satisfying part of your role?

Being able to be a part of change is incredibly fulfilling. My role is about changing things that matter to people, and I guess to a degree it helps with saving lives. It has purpose and feels like you are able to make change and it’s going to help somebody. Also, it’s great knowing that my role at Develop Consulting it is about enabling and giving more sustainable change to our clients transferring knowledge and skills, rather than it being just a one-off exercise and making them dependable on us.

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