What does it take to save lives in war, disaster, and disease?

Tony Redmond has over 30 years’ experience of responding to wars, disease outbreaks, and sudden onset disasters all around the world. In this engaging talk, he will detail the lessons learned, the improvements that have been made in the international response, and how we can continue to ensure the assistance provided is both effective and focused on those most in need.

He will describe the type of medical assistance that is needed across the various types of humanitarian emergencies and how international support can best complement, and not compete with, the work of others and that of the affected country itself.

Delivering medical assistance during humanitarian crises, especially during conflicts, can be incredibly dangerous. Tony will outline how we can attempt to mitigate these risks, though never eliminate them. He will describe his personal experiences of practicing medicine under fire.

A particular focus of the presentation will be his work in Ukraine and that of his colleagues in UK-Med. He will explain how the programs they are running there been shaped by their experience of delivering emergency medical aid to Sarajevo and Kosovo for the duration of the wars in the Balkans.

Helping those in need during a Humanitarian Crisis is not without personal cost. Tony will discuss how we can look to reduce this amongst team members. He will also give an insight into the physical and mental challenges he has had to deal with – the legacy of over 30 years of committed work.

How do the recent influx of Chinese migrants from Hong Kong compare to previous ones in British history?

The Chinese in Britain are a simultaneously visible and invisible community. Historically rooted in the port cities of Liverpool and London – as witnessed by their once bustling Chinatowns – the Chinese diaspora in Britain has now spread to towns and cities throughout the UK.

Much Chinese immigration to Britain has stemmed from political upheaval in China in the last century. Compared to the diaspora in the US, the influence of Britain’s historic ties to Hong Kong has been apparent. Families are overwhelmingly from Guangdong, China’s southern region, and mainly Cantonese speaking.

The economic and social pressures that greeted many of these refugee families were often similar to those experienced by the Windrush generation. The pace of Chinese immigration to Britain picked up as Hong Kong’s handover to China in 1997 became imminent.

Another influence is the role British universities have played since the 1970s, in training successive generations of Chinese scientists. Bilateral exchanges have created valuable connections to a multi-ethnic country of continental proportions. Cultural and educational links formed with Britain have meant that Chinese migration, predominantly from Hong Kong, has been enriched by a small but growing settlement from other Chinese regions, together with inward investment.

In this event with Newsnight Economics Editor Ben Chu, we will seek to address questions such as what are the barriers to integration for this specific cohort of young British-born Chinese, sometimes tagged as “BBC Chinese”? How might their aspirations and world view be influenced by the experience of being torn from Hong Kong’s cosmopolitan 24/7 oriental hothouse atmosphere to a distant European alternate “motherland”? Could their imposed isolation and diminished status as refugees give rise to a growing nostalgia for Chinese culture? And might they be susceptible to blandishments from Beijing aimed at the Chinese Diaspora?

What does the future of healthcare look like for our region? Sir Richard Leese is the man to tell us.

The 2022 Health and Care Act created Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) across the whole of England. Greater Manchester ICS came into existence on July 1^st that year. NHS Greater Manchester and our region’s ten Councils are now charged with working together to improve population health, to tackle health inequalities, deliver good value-for-money health and care services, and have regard for the wider economic and social role of the NHS.

At the core of Greater Manchester’s ICS’s approach to meeting these challenges is a neighbourhood model that integrates and aligns NHS and Council Services. But improving population health must mean addressing the social determinants of poor health. And this goes far beyond the provision of integrated care services, however effective they may be.

The NHS and Councils have come together with a vast array of stakeholders, including citizens themselves, in the GM Integrated Care Partnership. In March this year the partnership board signed off the comprehensive medium term strategy to meet the objectives set in legislation.

Following that, in late June 2023, the GM Integrated Care Board agreed its 5 year Forward Plan, setting out how the healthcare strategy was going to be delivered and how it would measure and account for that delivery.

It is an immense endeavour that will require the broadest engagement. But Richard Leese and his dedicated team believe it sets out a route to a far, far healthier and happier city-region.

Join us for this talk to hear the inside story on how the vision will be delivered.