Dr Hans Hartung Consultant Respiratory Physician

About me

Hans is a Quality Improvement Fellow and Consultant Respiratory and General Physician at NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

He is the local lead of the Managed Clinical Network in Respiratory Medicine and a member of the National Respiratory Advisory Group, Scotland. He is a passionate advocate for improving patient–clinician relationships.

Hans studied and earned his medical degree in Germany and moved to the UK in 1990. He obtained his membership at the Royal College of Physicians in 1993 and completed specialist training in Respiratory and General Medicine in Edinburgh (NHS Lothian University Hospitals).

Hans was inspired by Quality Improvement Fellows he met in his role as local clinical lead for the Health Foundation’s Co-creating Health programme and decided it was the perfect path to follow to step up the scale of his improvement work.

‘Clinicians everywhere are involved in small-scale projects, we’re all trying to improve care within our smaller teams,’ says Hans. ‘I reached a point where I wanted to go further and have a greater impact. I wanted to see through changes on a larger scale but felt I didn’t have enough skills or the knowledge to make what I know work in a bigger system.’

During his year at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Hans focused on ways to improve person-centred care. He wanted to understand how, in practice, person-centred care can be systematically embedded in a healthcare system, starting small then moving onto a much larger, national scale.

‘Most of us clinicians are striving to deliver person-centred care. But from a patient perspective a healthcare journey can be impersonal and confusing.’ he explained.

Hans hoped that his year in Boston will enable him to learn from organisations that have already implemented person-centred care. He wanted to translate what they know into meaningful lessons for him and UK healthcare. On his return he wanted to build on the acquired knowledge and become a clinical champion of person-centred care and contribute to change at a local and national level.