Callum Brown | MPharm, Msc, PgCert, CMgr FCMI | Director
Background
Callum's professional story begins in Scotland where he studied at the prestigious Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences. Having achieved a Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) degree with distinction, he found his home in the North East of England where he joined a leading NHS foundation trust. There, Callum worked in a specialist pharmacy production unit taking responsibility as an authorised pharmacist for the production of CIVAS medications, Cytotoxics including intrathecal medications, sterile and non sterile licensed medications and clinical trial products. These were distributed immediately to patients across the region, including a number of highly specialised units including the Great North Children's Hospital and the Northern Centre for Cancer Care. It is here that Callum developed his passion for patient safety and quality Improvement. With no margin for error, he began to explore how even small changes could lead to profound and lasting improvements not only to the quality and safety of products being delivered to patients but also to cost control, productivity and efficiency.
Callum moved into a new role at a neighbouring NHS foundation trust and joined a team facilitating change and improvement across the organisation. This was his introduction to consultancy as the role's purpose was to coach, guide and assist staff across all disciplines in their own quality, safety and improvement projects. In a climate of exceptional financial pressure across the NHS, Callum's passion for making improvement became firmly entwined with the need to increase productivity and efficiency, ensuring that the trust achieved value for money. This journey continued through roles in business services and improvement facilitation. Callum is now a senior manager within the NHS and leads teams who deliver patient safety, improvement and experience portfolios.
Still a registered pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council, his written work has been published by the Pharmaceutical Journal and most recently as a contributor to a textbook on safety science. He has reached Charter Manager status, is PRINCE2 qualified and holds a green belt in Lean 6 Sigma.
With over a decade of experience, Callum has developed a superb reputation for his ability to immerse himself in diverse corporate and technical environments, quickly understand processes within those environments and identify areas where improvements can be made. Callum's true strengths, though, lie in his personal approach to his work and his absolute dedication to achieving business aims with a person-centred focus.
QSI Excel is proud to bring Callum's experience and expertise to industry through bespoke consultancy, training, project support, business diagnostics and corporate away days. You can book a free introductory consultation with Callum to explore how your business can thrive with QSI Excel.
Areas of Interest and Expertise
Callum is particularly interested in the application of systems thinking to quality, safety and improvement. This means moving away from a linear view of poor quality being the result of any lone factor, towards a holistic approach which considers how multiple contributing factors might be leading to failure; are all of the cogs in the machine working together or is there a spanner in the works?
NHS patients have increasingly complex needs, both in terms of clinical demand and their individual expectations. Combined with work force challenges, financial constraints, increasing pressures and strict quality and safety standards, the NHS is a complex system in which to work. Callum's experience of leading change in this environment has provided a depth of expertise that he can apply to any business sector. Indeed, many of the techniques used by Callum in the NHS and at QSI Excel have originated from other industries such as manufacturing and even the airline industry. This means that his skills are applicable across all business types.
Callum has a real passion when it comes to how quality, safety and improvement interact with one another. This passion combined with his qualifications and extensive experience make him the ideal consultant to help with your business needs and often the solutions are much simpler than you might think!
Outside of work, Callum is an avid gardener and adores spending time with animals. Having spent his formative years around farming and wildlife, he now lives in rural Northumberland and enjoys the stunning and diverse natural environment the region has to offer.
Callum enjoys using his skills to help other people and has held various volunteering roles. QSI is proud to offer discounted rates to charitable sector organisations.
Education and Qualifications
MPharm Master Of Pharmacy, University of Strathclyde
MSc Health and Care System Leadership, University of Birmingham
PgCert Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Developing Leadership Capability and Competence, University of Sunderland
CMgr FCMI Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute
Continuous Professional Development:
Level 7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship, University of Birmingham
PRINCE2 7th Edition (Foundation and Practitioner), The Knowledge Academy
Lean 6 Sigma Yellow and Green Belt, The Knowledge Academy
Level 2 Certificate in Creating a Business Start-up, NCFE
Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Team Leading, NCFE
Level 2 Certificate in Lean Organisation Management Techniques, NCFE
Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Behaviour that Challenges, NCFE
Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Autism, NCFE
Level 2 A Systems Approach to Patient Safety, HSSIB
Systems approach to learning from patient safety incidents and engaging with patients, families, and staff following a patient safety incident training, Morgan Human Systems
PSIRF: Oversight Training, Morgan Human Systems
Flow Coaching Academy Programme, Northumbria Healthcare NHSFT Academy
Memberships and Accreditations
Pharmacist, GPhC (Reg No. 2215346)
Chartered Manager (CMgr FCMI), Chartered Management Institute
PeopleCert
Publications
A day in the life of a quality improvement champion
Pharmaceutical Journal, Author
Patient Safety - Emerging Applications of Safety Science
Class Professional Publishing, Contributor
ISBN: 1801610835, 9781801610834
Adopting a quality improvement approach to patient safety incidents
Pharmaceutical Journal, Author
How to evaluate the impact of a quality improvement intervention
Pharmaceutical Journal, Author
Pharmaceutical Journal Contributor Profile
Previous Employers
Patient Safety and Quality Manager
Callum is currently Patient Safety and Quality Manager at the North East Ambulance Service.
This role involves looking at patient safety and experience in combination, and how improvements can be made in these areas.
Improvement Facilitator
Callum provided expert improvement advice and training across the organisation in an internal consultancy model.
During the pandemic, Callum supported the Pharmacy Oncology team in his capacity as a pharmacist.
Laterally, Callum was involved with the interpretation and implementation of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)
Improvement Facilitator/Pharmacist
Callum started his career at NuTH as a pre-registration pharmacist. After registration Callum took up the position of production pharmacist supplying medicines to various specialist units across the hospitals.
Callum returned to NuTH after a period at Northumbria Healthcare and provided expert improvement advice across the organisation in an internal consultancy model.
Business Manager
Callum was employed by the NHSBSA as a business manager in the Strategy, Performance, Business Development and Growth Directorate.
Callums affiliations
GPhC Registered Pharmacist
Callum remains on the GPhC Register as a pharmacist and enjoys the sense of belonging that being part of such a well respected profession gives him. Being a pharmacist means living by and working to a set of standards and these are illustrative of the level of professionalism that Callum will bring to working with your business.
GPhC Standards for Pharmacy Professionals:
- provide person-centred care
- work in partnership with others
- communicate effectively
- maintain, develop and use professional knowledge and skills
- use professional judgement
- behave in a professional manner
- respect and maintain the person’s confidentiality and privacy
- speak up when they have concerns or when things go wrong
- demonstrate leadership
Registration Number: 2215346
Chartered Manager (CMgr FCMI) with CMI
Callum obtained Chartered Management Fellow Status following completion of his MSc, Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship and years of practical experience. The completion of the apprenticeship element demonstrates that Callum has had his practical application of management/leadership theory assessed.
You can find more about the Chartered Management Institute here: https://www.managers.org.uk
Member of the Q community
The Q Community is thousands of people across the UK and Ireland, collaborating to improve the safety and quality of health and care. Q is delivered by the Health Foundation and supported and co-funded by partners across the UK and Ireland.
Read Callum's blog post on Q: https://q.health.org.uk/blog-post/my-improvement-journey-callum-brown/
Certified by PeopleCert
Callum is a paying member of PeopleCert, demonstrating his commitment to CPD. View Callum's certificates here: https://www.peoplecert.org/public-profile?ed=XCHu3ZqUTNIS1dEiCE1Rp2gpXQX6ICYo