The NHS faces financial risks and worries over organisational success due to the lack of female leaders on Clinical Commissioning Groups, a new report has warned.

Releasing Potential: Women doctors and clinical leadership found women had experienced difficulties joining CCG leadership committees despite evidence showing gender diverse boards improve financial performance.

GP Penny Newman, report author, says the lack of diversity presents “a risk to developing the collaborative and inclusive leadership behaviour needed for organisations to succeed in a complex system”.

The report, funded by the National Leadership Council, was based on in-depth interviews with 26 leading female GPs and consultants with the outcomes tested on a further National Leadership Council workshop which included 43 female medical leaders and other experts.

Several interviewees said they had signalled an intention to take a senior role within CCGs but had experienced issues in joining. Previously, claims had been made of a ‘jobs for boys’ culture from female GPs following a similar study by Pulse. One interviewee even described one leadership committee as consisting of “clubs, gangs and mafia”, insisting there was “exclusion, inequity and disengagement of the rest of the profession”.

Research from the report said that female GPs were more likely to work with marginalised and vulnerable communities and were found to have qualities such as empathy, being able to question and admit vulnerability and offering support and development to others.

“While the number of female doctors continues to rise, there remains an unacceptably small proportion in leadership positions within the NHS,” said Dr Newman.

“Female doctors represent a valuable resource to the health service, both in terms of the style of working and individual talent.

“The NHS needs to enable them to achieve leadership positions through more flexible working and other initiatives to maximise the potential of the workforce and ultimately provide a better service for patients.”

The report follows an investigation by HSJ which revealed that 85% of CCGs were led by men.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 jobs are expected to be lost at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries as part of the company’s cost-cutting measures.

Reports from Israel claim the majority of the layoffs will be made in the US and Europe and mainly focused in Teva’s recently acquired Cephalon’s generic business.

The reports say that Teva is hoping to raise $500 million in synergies from its takeover with job losses expected to raise the majority of its target.

Teva has already said it is planning to cut sales, marketing and administrative expenses by $300 million, R&D by between $120 million and $150 million, and production costs by $50 million to $80 million. R&D savings would be achieved by cutting duplicate operations, the company said.

Teva has a history of job losses following takeovers of generic companies. In 2008 it bought US generic specialist Barr and reduced its workforce by 10%, reports say.

A reduction of 1,000 jobs at Cephalon would represent a loss of 27% roles before the takeover. But one company where job losses will be made, the reports say, is at Mepha, the Swiss generics manufacturer Cephalon bought last year. The company had 620 jobs prior to the acquisition.