Our Events
Upcoming Events
The business of healthcare – ethical issues for doctors, vets and dentists
19th June 2026
Quaker meeting rooms, Edinburgh
9.30am to 4.30pm
75
Join us in Edinburgh to explore and discuss the tensions in the way that we organise care, and the way it is funded. This will be a unique opportunity to hear perspectives from GP’s, vets, and dentists, and to consider what can be learnt from each other – from overdiagnosis and overtreatment, to equity in access, to job satisfaction.
We are delighted to welcome Professor Emerita Allyson Pollock, consultant in public health medicine, Honorary Professor University of St Andrews, and was Director of Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University. Allyson will deliver the keynote presentation ‘Corporate control and the evolution of General Practice into a business: a historical perspective’.
Joining us too are expert speakers and discussants including:
• Caroline Scobie, a small animal General Practice vet with a strong interest in evidence-based care; and Dr Rachel Dean, Director of Clinical Research and Excellence in practice at VetPartners group. They will consider the daily dilemmas and tensions vets face, external influences, and differences in ways of working.
• Professor David Conway, Professor of Dental Health, Director of Dental Research and Head of Community Health at the University of Glasgow, and Honorary Consultant with Public Health Scotland; will talk about the challenges of inequalities in access to dental care.
• Dr David Blane, Senior Clinical Lecturer in General Practice and Primary Care at University of Glasgow, will speak about GP funding and how this is related to equity of access.
• Dr Chris Johnstone, retired GP, will highlight his recent research paper about changes in Scottish general practice and the rise of ‘megapractices’.
• Professor Kevin Orr, Professor of Leadership and Governance at University of St Andrews Business School. Kevin will present on the experience of outsourcing public sector services, including underlying assumptions, dilemmas, promises, and failures.
Together our experts will host a training workshop with small groups considering the challenges in specific areas relevant to this topic: from over-treatment to equity, to funding gaps, to outsourcing.
Further insights will be from two brief presentations from students from University of Birmingham – our future clinicians and researchers – Muhaimin Shah and Daniel George. Their second-year Personal Interest Projects explore economic motivations in healthcare and the question of medicine as a job or a vocation.
We intend this event to be useful to doctors, dentists and vets – and people involved in thinking about contracts, business decisions in healthcare, financial pressures on the NHS, and how to use money to bring equity to care. People at the start, middle and later careers working in and around healthcare, as well as those working in policy, journalism, and patient advocates are all welcome.
BOOKING HERE
Past Events
Screening – it’s complicated. The science, evidence and practice of screening for disease
5th February 2026 Parliament Hall, St Andrews
‘Screening – it’s complicated’ had a packed programme of expert speakers from a variety of disciplines. The event created the space for knowledge sharing, discussion, and debate, with one delegate reflecting that the event had enabled “empowerment to address these issues with friends, family, colleagues and policy makers” . Read the full report here
Also, read a reflective summary from an undergraduate student – one of our future clinicians – who chose to attend the event to enhance and compliment their medical studies at the School of Medicine, University of St Andrews. Read Niamh Bleakley’s reflective piece here
Inaugural event – Evidence and Values in Healthcare: Why they matter
31st October 2025 Parliament Hall, St Andrews
Director of the Centre for Evidence and Values in Healthcare, Dr Margaret McCartney, reflected on the event “I’m very grateful to everyone who came and who made the event such a success. I had so many conversations with inspiring people working all over healthcare. Our work can be both difficult and hugely rewarding and we are looking forward to developing ways to support people in the everyday challenges we face”. Read the full report here.
L-R: Dr Joseph Millum, Sir David Haslam, Karen Titchener, Dr Margaret McCartney, Professor Kevin Orr, Professor Frank Sullivan
