From the frontline to the forefront: why I'm focusing on a new model for UK healthcare
The manifesto
I’ll always remember this. A patient attended the pharmacy. He was distraught and held a green prescription in his right hand for a condition which could have been prevented through earlier screening and intervention. Whilst dispensing his prescription, the medicine felt less like a solution, and more like a plaster on a much deeper issue. Reflecting, I realised I was actually at the end of a long chain of events, and my passion grew, to move from managing the consequences to shaping the causes.
A View from the Frontline
As a second generation pharmacist, I have seen the impact of community pharmacy on its local population. A community pharmacy is a place of trust, direct patient contact (usually without an appointment) and where you truly see what healthcare is - not a grand design of structures, but a series of individual human interactions. During my time working in community, I saw through those thousands of interactions and saw recurring patterns and systemic gaps that no amount of efficient dispensing could fix.
It became clear to me that while my role was vital, I was working within a system designed for reaction, not prevention. I wanted to understand the architecture of that system and find the levers to change it which led to me joining the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme in the policy & strategy stream.
Connecting the Dots: From Patient to Policy
My desire to understand the system's architecture led me on an unexpected path from the pharmacy to the heart of Government policy. My time working in the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit in the Cabinet Office was incredibly insightful and I where would say I had my most fulfilling professional experiences: being tasked with a complex, national-level problem and identifying a big-picture solution that others had missed.
The work was intellectually stimulating, and it felt like moving from a single instrument to conducting the entire orchestra. It confirmed my belief that the most impactful changes are not just about working harder within the current system, but about fundamentally redesigning the system itself. To genuinely help the patient holding that prescription and bag of medicines, we need to influence the policies, incentives, and technologies that shape their journey long before they reach the pharmacy door.
A New Mission: Building a Preventative Future
My experiences have given me a unique perspective: I have seen the human cost of a reactive healthcare model on the frontline, and I have seen the immense potential for strategic intervention at the highest levels of policy.
Therefore, my professional mission is now singular: to help build a more preventative, efficient, and equitable healthcare system in the UK.
I will be focusing my career on the intersection where healthcare, technology, policy, and investment meet. I believe this is where the solutions to our biggest challenges lie. Whether it's through shaping policy that encourages innovation, investing in the technologies that empower preventative care, or advising organisations on how to navigate this complex landscape, my goal is to be a part of the solution.
Chai With Aditya will be my journal in this mission and I’ll be exploring the challenges and opportunities in UK health tech, analysing policy decisions and sharing my thoughts on the future of healthcare. If you’re working in this space, please do reach out as I look to grow my network.
I’ll end with a question to you: What do you believe is the single biggest, non-obvious barrier to a more preventative healthcare system in the UK today?