Leadership in COVID-19: building public trust is key

May 11, 2020

Kamal R. Mahtani and Sean Heneghan

The authors lead the University of Oxford Evidence-Based Healthcare Leadership Programme.

This piece was first published on the BMJ Opinion site.

“without trust we cannot stand” — Confucius

The UK is now entering its another week of lockdown, with no immediate signs of respite. At his first briefing since recovering from his illness, Boris Johnson the UK’s prime minister made it clear that the nation should “contain your impatience” as we approach “the end of the first phase of this conflict.” The prime minister spoke of the need to meet five tests before moving to a “second phase”—whatever that may be.

At the daily Coronavirus briefings, the UK government’s advisors have…read more.

About the authors

Kamal R. Mahtani is a practising NHS GP, Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, and Director of the MSc in EBHC Systematic Reviews.

Sean Heneghan is a Chartered Organisational Psychologist and Senior Tutor at the University of Oxford.
Both authors lead the University of Oxford Evidence-Based Healthcare Leadership Programme.

Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to Jeffrey Aronson and Meena Mahtani for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this commentary represent the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the host institution, the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care. The views are not a substitute for professional medical advice.