ARU student launches national health campaign

Rethinking Health project backed by influential leaders launches at Westminster

The Rethinking Health launch at the House of Lords

A Medicine student at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is behind a campaign aimed at reforming health care education to improve the future of the NHS.

Third-year ARU student Hamaad Khan is the co-founder of Rethinking Health, a national student and trainee campaign which advocates that health care reform starts with better education of health care professionals, the future generation of the health service.

The campaign has formally launched its report, Hope for the Future, at the House of Lords with influential figures in healthcare such as Navina Evans, Dr Simon Opher MP, Sir David Haslam, Lord Nigel Crisp, Kamila Hawthorne, Kamran Abassi, Sir Sam Everington, Dame Donna Kinnair, Baroness Watkins of Tavistock, and Professor Keith Willett in attendance.

The campaign calls for the education of healthcare workers to focus on disease prevention, addressing the root causes of ill health, allowing for a more sustainable health service fit for the future.

The campaign aims to unite healthcare students and early career professionals through webinars, conferences and talks to raise the awareness of the role education has in health care reform and improving the health service.

Co-founder Hamaad Khan, 25, is originally from Uxbridge in West London and is currently studying at ARU’s School of Medicine in Chelmsford, after which he intends to go into general practice.

“Our long-term aim is to empower and educate the next generation of health professionals to establish a standard of clinical culture that prioritises disease prevention, health creation, and patient-centred approaches to wellbeing.

“ARU’s School of Medicine has always been in the unique position of being a newer medical school, championing curriculum innovation and teaching. Educating and training the future health workforce is important because it contributes to clinical culture and ultimately the standard of care we all experience as patients.”

ARU Medicine student Hamaad Khan