About

Hi, my name is Fiona

I am passionate about delivering high quality healthcare for patients, carers and the population. I support teams to make improvements in the way they think about and provide services, based on what matters to real people. I work with healthcare providers, think-tanks, charities and researchers to explore what it means to be ‘human-centred’ in their context. My professional and patient experiences, combined with a values-led approach, allow me to bring a unique set of skills to person-centred quality improvement & innovation, patient experience, and co-production.

My healthcare experience started as a patient, with three long-term conditions and decades of healthcare experience across musculoskeletal, neurological and women's health conditions. I've managed these pretty well for most of my life but in 2009 I became particularly unwell and spent a lot of time in and out of hospital. I saw lots of great care but also plenty of opportunities for improvement. I found opportunities to get involved as a patient and have subsequently built a career around understanding what matters most to patients and populations, and delivering improvements based on that insight. Together, we can do better.

Human-centred healthcare

It can sometimes feel like public services have been stripped of their humanity. In healthcare, efforts have focused on care and respect but so much more is required. While this is about experience, it is also about outcomes, safety, and value. Knowing what high quality healthcare looks like requires greater emphasis on understanding what matters to people, particularly in a publicly-funded healthcare system.

I lead and support quality improvement, research, and innovation initiatives that emphasise the perspectives of the people at the heart of it all - patients, users, & the wider population working together with staff to make healthcare better. Involving people through co-design, co-production, and collaboration in services and research is a consistent theme in my career and something I'm highly experienced in.

I also provide training in human-centred healthcare with particular emphasis on improvement methodologies, how to understand and improve patient experience, confidence in partnering with patients, as well as strengthening general communication and facilitation skills. I regularly facilitate workshops, meetings and focus groups to support teams in engaging with different stakeholders.

Creating better collaboration and partnership between those who provide services and the populations they serve brings me joy.

Three people sit in a warm coloured room. One is holding a yellow ball, one is holding another's wrist. The third sits with their hands together. We do not see their faces.

A fern unfurls surrounded by green plants.

Two people stand on a pavement looking down at their feet. In front of them reads the words: "Passion led us here"

A bit more background

I've had a wide variety of roles in health and care, pouring my passion and energy into embedding a human-centred focus in improvement work. I have worked as an independent consultant since 2017. Before that, I was Deputy Director for the UK Improvement Alliance, and previously led on patient insight and involvement for UCLPartners, an Academic Health Science Partnership.

I've had a varied career in engagement, policy, communications and operational management, with advisory roles with the New Zealand Government, the Overseas Development Institute and the Church Commissioners for England. In all of these I have had or developed a particular focus on understanding community needs and flexing services to meet those needs. As an elected patient, I was Lead Governor at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2011 to 2016 and co-led a campaign to improve patient and staff experience at the trust.

My life and career have been shaped by a well-timed trip to South Africa in April 1994, during the first democratic elections. A commitment to improving services for whole populations was inspired seeing conditions in townships, watching people queue for days to vote and the eventual election of Mandela.

I'm married to an econometrician with a similar interest in human behaviour and I spend a significant amount of non-work time in the garden. I’ve lived in the UK for 15 years but still call Aotearoa New Zealand home. I like colourful socks.

Fiona McKenzie trading as Human-Centred Health