About the author
Dr Afzal
Mohammed
A general practitioner and clinical leader exploring what it takes to improve care from the front line and to carry that learning into the wider health system.
Dr Afzal Mohammed is a GP partner at Carlton Group Practice in Burton upon Trent. His professional life is rooted in frontline general practice and in the practical work of improving how care is organised around patients.
His work spans direct patient care, clinical governance, long-term condition management and the development of multidisciplinary models for people living with complexity. Within his practice, he is involved in building the clinical, organisational and leadership capability needed to move from reactive care to more coordinated, preventative and person-centred care.
Across East Staffordshire, he contributes to the development of neighbourhood health and stronger working relationships between general practice, community services, hospitals and the voluntary sector. Elected as a neighbourhood Clinical Lead in September 2026, he works with practices serving some of the most deprived communities in Burton upon Trent. His central interest is not simply in the design of new pathways, but in the conditions that make collaboration possible: trust, clarity, accountability, shared purpose and an authentic clinical voice.
“Good transformation begins with the realities of care: the patient in front of us, the people doing the work and the relationships that allow change to happen.”
Leadership as a live inquiry
Afzal began the Nye Bevan programme in September 2026, during a period of significant clinical and organisational transformation. He sees the programme as an opportunity to test formal leadership ideas against the untidy reality of change, particularly where responsibility, authority and influence do not neatly align.
Leading from the Front Line is the journal of that inquiry. It is written for clinicians and emerging clinical leaders, as well as those working at system and board level. He hopes it will also become a shared resource for the Nye Bevan community, bringing together independent contributions and learning that may inform a collective publication. It is an independent project, rather than an official programme publication. Its purpose is to connect those perspectives without smoothing away the tensions between them.
Scholarship beyond medicine
Alongside his medical and leadership work, Afzal writes and teaches on hadith and the sciences of hadith. His current work includes Before Bukhari, a teaching programme that explores the transmission, preservation and development of the hadith tradition. This scholarship requires close attention to evidence, provenance, interpretation and intellectual honesty. Those same disciplines inform his approach to questions of leadership and institutional change.
Editorial position
This is a personally grounded but not confessional journal. Experiences are considered thematically and appropriately anonymised. The views expressed are personal and do not represent any employing, commissioning or partner organisation.