Author: Dr Anu Watson
Date of event : 08/09/26 – 10/09/26
Location: Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne
Dr Anu Watson represented the SCAN team on day one of the 58th British Sociological Association Medical Sociology Annual Conference hosted by Northumbria University, presenting preliminary insights on NHS and wider health sector knowledge exchange on counter fraud.
For the SCAN team, the event represented a valuable opportunity to contribute to the dialogue on sociological study of healthcare organisations and draw attention to the importance of attending to NHS and wider healthcare fraud (and counter fraud) within this field of study. The team’s presentation offered insights in to learning, knowledge- and good practice exchange within NHS and wider health sector counter fraud.
Understanding learning, knowledge and good practice exchange in this setting is important as it has implications as to how we improve practice, organise work, educate and train practitioners, produce guidance for complex contextually bound tasks, and how we monitor performance.
Findings and Insights
Key insights and takeaways for the SCAN Team included but were not limited to.
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- A broad range of insightful sociological research on healthcare organisations was on display at the Healthcare organisations panel that SCAN team attended on the day.
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- Healthcare workforce was in focus across the majority of the presentations within the panel. For example, Dr Francesca Dakin’s (Oxford University) presentation examined teamwork and relational infrastructure, demonstrating their importance within modern UK general practice.
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- Dr Jennifer Remnant (Strathclyde University) spoke about symptom management, disclosure and organisational control in the NHS. This research vividly illustrated how the healthcare professionals work in a setting that is equipped and designed to deal with ill health, but that these issues were often not understood or acknowledged when it concerned the healthcare workforce itself.
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- The panel also showcased work from outside the UK; PhD student Jingyu Wei’s presentation on Care as Governance, analysing gendered labour in Chinese hospitals, highlighting the importance of researching gendered narratives outside the Western settings. Whereas Kristina Roset, a Doctoral Research Fellow from Arctic University of Norway (UiT) explored the complexity within, what initially could appear as polarised narratives around re-organisation of maternity care in northern Norway.
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- Interest in and responses to the team’s presentation further went on to highlight the pertinence of attending to fraud and counter fraud in this context as a subject of sociological enquiry.
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- Networking and follow up conversations, in and around the panel presentations: following our presentation, offered valuable comments and feedback which was gratefully received and provided plenty of food for thought as the team progress in analysis and writing up of project findings.
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- The team would like to specifically extend a thank you to fellow sociologists of health and illness notably Professor Catherine Pope from University of Oxford, and Dr Gethin Rees from Newcastle University.
The SCAN team would like to thank the organisers of MedSoc for another excellent conference day, and Rose Watson from the organising committee for the photos, and chairing our presentation. We look forward to MedSoc 2027.
Please note: This project is funded by the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme (NIHR159714). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
