Michael Barker

Michael has a lifelong career in healthcare. He trained as a physiotherapist in South Africa. He then continued to develop his clinical career in the UK at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital where he held the post of Consultant Physiotherapist to the Intensive Care Directorate and developed models of care that are still in practice today. He then went on to complete his MBA at Imperial College Business School. Since then, he has developed a successful management career at Board level, leading complex projects that have set a new future for, and successfully transformed, healthcare organisations.

He is also a healthcare entrepreneur, having set up two healthcare companies. The first is Saffron Steer, an influential and experienced healthcare strategy business. The second is a new concept Physiotherapy practice, “Physio 3.0”.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, he returned to the clinical shopfloor as the Head of Physiotherapy for NHS Nightingale Hospital, London.  He then spent 18-months at the Department of Health and Social Care leading the role out of the LAMP (saliva) Covid testing programme.  He is currently working as a Specialist Clinical Advisor to the NHS New Hospital Programme.

Michael is particularly interested in ‘people powered health’ – how people are included in the decisions about their health. He believes healthcare organisations need to move beyond the product of care towards the experience of care.