For episode 48 of the National Health Executive podcast, we spoke to award-winning and internationally acclaimed broadcaster and journalist, Pete Price, about his life and experience with aversion therapy on the NHS. This episode contains explicit language and strong views

In the podcast, we explored how aversion therapy ties in with conversion therapy and what the Bill that has been making its way through parliament since last year means for the LGBTQ+ community and society as a whole.

Notably, the Bill was included in the King’s Speech this month, as it seems Sir Keir Starmer intends to press ahead with banning conversion practices.

“First of all, conversion therapy: I knew nothing about,” said Pete. “It’s reared its ugly head a few times, I’ve been on television and talked about it. Conversion therapy is where they brainwash you; aversion therapy is what they did to me, so that’s what we’re going to be talking about.”

In the podcast, Pete discusses his childhood, family and the period of time he spent in a ‘hospital’ undergoing aversion therapy.

He explained: “Growing up was very difficult for me because at the age of 12 I discovered I was a homosexual and didn’t understand it, didn’t know what it was about — all I knew was my pals were all going out with girls and I wasn’t.

“I wasn’t attracted to girls but I went out with girls, so I fought my sexuality; growing up I fought my sexuality because, in those days, I was a criminal — it was against the law to be a homosexual!”

For episode 47 of the National Health Executive podcast, we were joined by Sue Holden, the CEO at the Advancing Quality Alliance — otherwise known as Aqua.

Sue spoke about her leadership philosophy, where that mindset comes from and the epiphanies she’s had while working in the NHS.

She said: “We can focus on the ‘what’ and forget the ‘how’ is where the magic happens, so — from my point of view — I’ve had the privilege to work with a lot of organisations in various different guises.

“Certainly when I was working with trusts that were really challenged, not one of those organisations didn’t have magic in it, didn’t have a brilliant service, didn’t have a team that was going above and beyond, and didn’t have people that were doing exciting things.”

There were also small pockets that needed support and the mark of a good leader is fostering an environment that enables the people who are struggling to access the help they need, explained Sue.

Sue also highlighted the four times in her career she has had an epiphany or “things that have really sat me back on my heels and made me rethink my own perspective” as she puts it.

“The first one was when I was a student nurse — that was back in the 80s...”

Listen to the full podcast to hear Sue’s insights and the pivotal moments in her career.

In Episode 46 of the National Health Executive podcast, we were joined by Trish Greenhalgh, who is a professor of primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford, as well as a former GP.

Trish offered insight into how the primary care digital transformation journey is going, specifically since the explosion of innovation observed following the pandemic.

Trish highlighted some of the recent research she has been doing in general practices looking at digitalised aspects of care that have in fact impacted disadvantaged people negatively, widening already existing health inequalities.

“The pandemic was a pretty big shock,” said Trish when explaining some of the theory around external shocks speeding up the innovation process.

She added: “We had to immediately, or in the space of a fortnight-three weeks, shift general practice from a face-to-face model to a remote model and I think it is one of the major achievements of general practice in this country that we did that — we did it really quickly and we did it effectively.

“We responded to the shock, and then the question is, ‘Well hang on a minute, what do we do now?’”

Listen in full to learn more about government priorities, co-design and more.