Sejal Mistry MCOptom is Specialist Optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital London, after completing her year as a Darzi Clinical Fellow. “The beauty of clinical leadership is that you can create change that benefits patients,” she says.

Run by London South Bank University (LSBU), the Darzi fellowship is a year-long programme with a focus on leadership and creating change in healthcare settings. Its aim is to equip participants with the knowledge, attitude and skills to lead the NHS of the future.

The fellowship, which has been running for 15 years, consists of teaching at LSBU alongside a placement in a host organisation. In Sejal’s case, this took place between September 2022 and 2023 at Moorfields.

“The thought behind the Darzi fellowship is that, as clinicians, we work practically with patients every day and have a really good understanding of how healthcare works at the ground level. This is a good position to be in when we think about how we can make healthcare systems better,” she says.