The healthcare leadership arena is an increasingly secular one where leaders can feel isolated in the role or reluctant to step into roles in the first place. Christians in Healthcare Leadership (CHLN - see cmf.li/CHLN) exists to unite and equip Christians in healthcare leadership - both current and future and welcomes non-clinical leaders and managers.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the healthcare systems of virtually every country on earth, and the UK has been no exception. A massive mobilisation and reorganisation of the British National Health Service (NHS) to address the challenges we were facing from this new and still poorly understood disease happened in weeks. And in the midst of this mass reorganisation, a lot of thinking had to go into how best to allocate limited resources as we faced a potential overload on the NHS.

Two of our members, Dr Melody Redman and Dr James Haslam, put together a paper looking at these questions and applying a biblical principles to the question of resource allocation. It sounds dry, but it is a matter that could quite literally mean life of death. In this special, extra edition of 1st incision, Steve Fouch has a wide ranging discussion with James and Melody about how we decide who gets what treatment, how COVID-19 has changed the way we think about how we allocate limited resources, and how the public's thinking has changed as a result of the pandemic. We also look at what challenges the future holds.

You can read Melody and James' paper, COVID-19: When demand outstrips supply and other resources on COVID-19 on the CMF Website.

In the last episode of season three of 1st incision, we look back at some of the ways Christian Medical Fellowship has been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and at some of the resources and support for health professionals that is still available. We're taking a break for the summer, but we'll be back in the autumn with a fresh series of interviews and discussions at the interface of faith, medicine, nursing and midwifery that affect our Christian lives in today's world.

Past episodes of 1st incision are available from our BuzzSprout page, including all 41 episodes of voices from the frontline

You can find out more about our Pastoral Care Programme at cmf.li/PCWP

While COVID1900Prayer has now finished, you can join us every Friday at 5pm for our new video series on Facebook and YouTube -Pause+Pray

And we'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions for the podcast - just email Steve Fouch on 1st.incision@cmf.org.uk

Anne Biro, the Vice-President of Nurses Christian Fellowship International (NCFI) talks with Steve Fouch about how Christian nurses in the UK and in many other nations are connecting together to encourage, teach and train each other during 2020, the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife (you can read more about this at cmf.li/36c3WUy and about the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale at cmf.li/3bo1NaM.
To find out more about CMF's work with nurses and midwives go to cmf.org.uk/nurses
Please note that this podcast was recorded in late January 2020, before COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing restrictions in the UK and other parts of the world. The NCFI World Congress mentioned in this podcast has since been postponed to 2021. You can read more about the work of NCFI and its rescheduled World Congress, go to ncfi.org
To learn more about the NCFI Next Generation network, see ncfi.org/about-ncfi/next-generation/

In our fortieth and final voices from the frontline, we talk to Audrey, an intensivist at a Glasgow intensive care unit.

At the sharp end of dealing with COVID-19, she and her team have been working longer hours, with trainees and non-specialists taking on new roles caring for those most seriously affected by the disease. How have she and her team handled the remarkable circumstances in which they have found themselves in the last three months? How has she found Jesus amid this crisis?

This is the last of our special series of voices from the frontline podcasts, but the 1st incision series continues, with a new episode going live next Friday, 29 May.

Esther is a community-based pharmacist, working closely with general practices. With social distancing and shielding, normal dispensing of medicines has changed considerably. What are the challenges, changes and stresses that pharmacy staff facing during lockdown. How is she finding spiritual support, and how can we pray for Esther and other pharmacists and frontline workers at this time.

Esther is an active member of Christians in Pharmacy - a national network for Christians working in and studying all aspects of pharmacy - check out their Facebook Page and their website for more details and to get in touch

Rachael works in NHS prison general practice and is medical director of Integritas Healthcare, a Christian faith-inspired NGO working with detainees in the UK and overseas, particularly in the Philippines.

How has COVID-19 affected detainees and prisons in the UK? How is it affecting the delivery of medical care in prisons in the Philippines? And how is she able to bring spiritual support and wholistic care to prisoners?

You can find out more about the work of Integritas at https://integritas-healthcare.squarespace.com

Ben is a frontline paramedic, dealing with priority ambulance calls. He also helps lead a Christian fellowship group within the ambulance service, part of the Christian Ambulance Association. There have been increased pressures and opportunities since COVID-19 became a real issue, and it has changed his work, but also the network of support and prayer for frontline crews. How are Christian paramedics and ambulance staff responding in faith and hope to what God is doing in the midst of this pandemic?

You can find out more about the Christian Ambulance Association at https://www.caauk.net/

Alice is a palliative care specialist. In a speciality that has always focused on touch, close personal interaction and open access visiting, COVID-19 and social distancing measures have totally changed the way that she is caring for the dying and the bereaved. It is taking a toll on her team as well as on dying patients and their families. As she goes into these difficult situations, how does her faith equip her to respond in such a time as this?

Chelsea is a paediatric critical care nurse who has been re-deployed to an adult ICU caring for COVID-19 patients. What is it like moving from child to adult intensive care? What is it like working twelve-hour shifts in PPE with the most seriously ill COVID-19 patients? How is she processing all she has had to deal with over the last few weeks?

You can read more about CMF's nursing and midwifery ministry at https://www.cmf.org.uk/nurses/

CMF Catalyst Teams are local teams of Christian health workers coming together to help unite and equip fellow Christian health professionals live and speak for Christ in their workplaces. We speak to three Catalyst Team leaders from around the UK, Noel, Brian and Angela, about how they are responding as Christians to the particular challenges of COVID-19 in their parts of the country.

You can find out more about Catalyst Teams at https://www.cmf.org.uk/catalyst-teams/

Georgie is a surgical nurse in an acute surgery unit. They are seeing fewer patients, which raises the concern that people are staying away from hospital out of fear of COVID-19, increasing their risks from their current condition. At the same time, like many other health workers, COVID-19 is having a real impact on her family life. She is also busy supporting final year students suddenly put in the frontline through her role in CMF. How is she managing with these additional stresses and strains, and how can we pray for her and the students she supports?

Georgie's blog, Uncertainty: our new normality, is available from https://cmf.li/3aceJjm

Ruth is a paediatric Occupational Therapist (OT), but with the advent of COVID-19, she has had focus her work on those with the most physical needs. It is a very tough time for physically vulnerable children and their families, who are enduring social isolation and anxiety during the lockdown. But Ruth is now dealing with a range of clinical needs that an OT never normally has to, including learning how to manage death and the care of the dying. How does her faith help her to deal with these challenges?

Remember to join us every day at 7 pm (BST/UTC+1) for #COVID1900Prayer, a chance to pray for health workers, our nation and the world as we respond to COVID-19

Today, we have a compilation of short stories from members on how their teams are responding to COVID-19 challenges and how they are working together and supporting one another in new ways.

The well-being of doctors, midwives and nurses has become a very topical issue. The General Medical Council has recently released a report looking at the systemic and organisational factors that lead to clinician stress. The British Medical Association is providing a 24/7 helpline and access to counselling services. But what about the Christian perspective? Do CMF members maintain their well-being in their workplaces? How do we support Christian clinicians to continue to live and speak for Jesus? And how do we care for the carers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic?

You can find out more about CMF's Pastoral Care and Well-being programme at https://cmf.li/PCWP

Remember to join us every day at 7 pm (BST/UTC+1) for #COVID1900Prayer, a chance to pray for health workers, our nation and the world as we respond to COVID-19

CMF's National Field Director and paediatrician Dr John Greenall discusses the needs, sensitivities, ethics and controversies surrounding the care and treatment of children and adolescents identifying as transgender.

The Joys of Justification

Listen to Sinclair Ferguson's first talk from National Conference 2019, speaking from Romans 5:1-11.

Recorded at Yarnfield Park, Friday 3 May 2019.