Leaders need to make sure they encourage staff and avoid stifling them to achieve great health outcomes for patients.

Dr Clare Gerada, who chairs the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) described an Olympic cyclist-style peleton approach.

She said: "My hypothesis is that we've had far too many heroic leaders." Instead, she said: "We need people working together, taking turns at the front."

Ms Gerada also warned that it was crucial to have an "ability to innovate and not stifle" staff.

The NHS Partners Network chief executive David Worskett said a new style of transformational leadership needs three Ts – time, trust and tolerance to allow staff the opportunity to innovate and thrive.

"One of the problems of leadership in care and the NHS is it always involves taking risks. Healthcare and the NHS is risk averse," he said.

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Rowlands Pharmacy national clinical liaison manager Liz Stafford said: "We need bottom-up delivery but we need top-down delivery as well, it's getting the balance right."

NHS Leadership Academy managing director Jan Sobieraj described how there is a tendency during a down turn to become isolated and insulated. However "that's absolutely the wrong thing to do", he told pharmacists at C+D's summit.

Mr Sobieraj said the academy will see the professions learning together and questioned why pharmacists and doctors are not learning medicines management together at pre-reg level.