HFMA Academy: inside track

Luca Paderi is one of eight students to have embarked on the new MBA in healthcare finance developed by BPP University. All eight students began the programme in February, having successfully completed the HFMA advanced higher diploma in healthcare business and finance.

Mr Paderi says the higher diploma has already improved his confidence and ability in his day job and believes the MBA programme will help prepare him for the introduction of integrated care systems across the NHS.

He took three modules back-to-back during 2018 to complete his advanced higher diploma. He is very clear about his motivation – to improve his understanding of the NHS and increase confidence when dealing with divisional directors. ‘I moved to the UK in 2004 from Italy, having completed a degree in economics, business and finance,’ he says.

Having settled in Nottingham, he worked in a number of finance roles in the private sector gaining his CIMA qualification in 2010. But he admits that joining the NHS in 2016 – keen to do something that made more of a difference – was a bit of a shock to the system.

‘I joined the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust at a relatively senior level and I realised there was a gap in my experience,’ he says. Initially working with the pathology service, Mr Paderi is now finance business partner for the medicine division, which includes the emergency department, acute medical, diabetes, cardiology and geriatric care among other services.

Part of his role is to influence and advise divisional directors. Mr Paderi saw the qualification as a way of supporting this – improving his overall understanding of how the NHS worked and helping him gain more detailed knowledge around areas that would support him in his day job.

The order of his three modules – Comparative healthcare systems; Managing the healthcare business: and Creating and delivering value in UK healthcare – was deliberately chosen to start at a high level and then drill down into more specific issues around governance and value.

Mr Paderi believes the qualification has already achieved its goals. ‘I feel better able to challenge service leads on more issues, and it really helps to have a better grasp of what is happening outside my own trust,’ he says. ‘And I’m much more involved in reviewing pathways and supporting teams to add value.’

He admits the workload has been challenging, especially given family commitments outside work. But it has been rewarding and he says it became easier as he became better able to judge which items of reading material were essential and which could be looked at in less depth.

With no real break, Mr Paderi signed up to the MBA programme, keen to keep his gained knowledge as fresh as possible. He says the teaching style is slightly different and students are expected to find a lot of the reading material for themselves. But he says it has led him to engage with stakeholders and to network more.

The one-year programme includes two modules (Project change and leadership and Strategic management) and a project.

And content is again proving to be very relevant to the current agenda in the NHS. As the subject for his assignment within the strategic management module, Mr Paderi has chosen to focus on the integration of geriatric health and social care – an issue that is likely to be a major priority in the national move towards integrated care systems.

---

For more on HFMA qualifications, visit hfma.to/qualification