Tributes for Bernard Crump - 'global leader of healthcare improvement'

Warwick Business School has paid tribute to Bernard Crump, Emeritus Professor of Practice in Healthcare and Leadership, who has sadly died at the age of 67. 

Professor Crump joined Warwick Business School in 2017 after an outstanding career in England’s National Health Service (NHS), where he was appointed as the first CEO of the NHS Institute of Innovation and Improvement before moving into academia and becoming one of the leading improvement advocates in healthcare. 

Indeed, only this year Professor Crump was made an Emeritus Professor at WBS in recognition of his significant contribution to the NHS and healthcare improvement.  

Andy Lockett, Dean of WBS and Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, said: “Bernard was the epitome of someone who was able to link academia and practice. Through his role, he was able to have a profound impact on the School’s research and teaching activities in healthcare management. 

“His expertise was important in helping faculty enhance the real-world impact of their research. Working closely with colleagues, across a range of different projects, Bernard’s expertise was instrumental in bringing about changes in policy and practice. 

“In the classroom Bernard was loved by his students. He was able to bring concepts to life, drawing on his own leadership experience, enabling students to grasp their practical implications.  

“However, above all else, Bernard was a highly valued colleague. He was an incredibly kind and selfless individual, always going the extra mile, and willing to help a colleague or student. And he was one of the most grounded people I have had the privilege of working with, which allied to a fabulous sense of humour, made him a wonderful and much-loved colleague.” 

Professor Crump studied medicine at the University of Birmingham, graduating in 1980. After postgraduate training in public health medicine, he spent a decade as Director of Public Health in South Birmingham and then Leicestershire, where he was also Deputy Chief Executive of the Leicestershire Health Authority. In 2002 he was made CEO of Shropshire and Staffordshire Strategic Health Authority. 

Professor Crump was able to put into practice his long-held passion for healthcare improvement when he was appointed CEO of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement in July 2005.  

He led a team that supported the transformation of the NHS in England through innovation, improvement, the adoption of best practices, leadership development and the cultivation of a culture of continuous improvement.  

Evaluations of the improvement programmes and products that the NHS Institute undertook while Professor Crump was CEO showed that they enhanced staff time with patients, improvement capability, efficiency, productivity, and patient safety at scale.

Global influence of NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement  

As well as being adopted by the majority of healthcare organisations in the NHS, their use spread to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, Denmark, and Ireland. As a result, Professor Crump was widely regarded as a global leader of the healthcare improvement movement. 

In 2012, Professor Crump joined Warwick Medical School as Professor of Medical Leadership before moving to WBS. He researched and lectured on a wide range of topics, including aspects of population health, the role of clinicians in management, health and healthcare improvement, the use of metrics in encouraging improvement and the use of health economics in decision-making.  

Helen Bevan, Professor of Practice in Health and Care Improvement at WBS and formerly Chief Transformation Officer at NHS Horizons and Chief of Service Transformation at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, said: “Bernard was an outstanding teacher, strategic thinker, humanitarian, and clinician. 

“He was my line manager at the NHS Institute for seven years and was driven by a mission to make a difference in the world, on a big scale.  

“Most leaders fit in a particular ‘box’; they are clinical leaders or managerial leaders or improvement leaders or impact or population health experts. Bernard transcended boxes. He was all of those things. It meant he was able to bring diverse groups of people together with a shared purpose.  

“Bernard was global in his perspective at a time when the NHS was often inward looking. He took the products and programmes of the NHS Institute around the world and brought new ideas and practices back. As someone who was kind and encouraging, he created the conditions where innovations and improvements could fly. 

“Teaching alongside Bernard at WBS was a privilege for me. I watched and learned. Bernard had such wide-ranging intellectual mastery. He was a scholar and a polymath. Whatever questions the students asked - across a vast array of topics - he always had an outstanding answer. He could have won Mastermind! 

“Bernard’s students loved him, and his colleagues regarded him as one of the most supportive, genuine and dependable people at the School.” 

Bringing lessons from Virginia Mason Institute to the NHS 

Professor Crump was part of the WBS team that evaluated the partnership between the US-based Virginia Mason Institute (VMI) and the NHS, a five-year project that has produced important lessons for healthcare organisations across the UK. 

Nicola Burgess, Professor of Operations Management, worked with Professor Crump on the VMI-NHS partnership. 

“Bernard's contributions as a co-investigator were invaluable,”  said said. “He consistently went above and beyond, not only in supporting my leadership of the work, but also in ensuring our findings truly informed impactful policy and practice.  

“Bernard was a remarkably kind, wise, and deeply respected individual. He possessed a rare combination of compassion and intellectual acumen that made him an exceptional colleague, one I feel incredibly fortunate to have known and worked alongside. Bernard had a profound connection to and understanding of all aspects of high-quality healthcare delivery.  

“He was also a fun person to spend time with and seemed to have unlimited and extraordinary knowledge of fine food and wine! I recollect that Bernard was almost always smiling, a pleasure to work with, and a joy to spend time with.” 

A week before his death, Professor Crump published an article on the WBS website that took learnings from the VMI-NHS partnership evaluation about demonstrating value from healthcare improvement work and considered the implications for healthcare organisations nationally and globally.  

In addition to his academic role, Professor Crump served two terms as Regional Chair for the Consumer Council for Water, championing the rights of domestic and business customers in the water industry in England. 

Professor Crump will be missed by his many colleagues at WBS, his students, and by healthcare improvement leaders across the UK and around the globe. 

A funeral service for Professor Crump will be held on September 20 at Great Glen Crematorium, Leicestershire, at 11.30am. 

An online donation page has been set up in memory of Professor Crump for charity Myeloma UK. 

Colleagues, students, and friends are also invited to contribute to a Book of Tributes for Professor Crump which will be shared with his family.