Healthcare IT appointments in brief

New chair for HSCIC

The Health and Social Care Information Centre, which will become NHS Digital this summer, has appointed a new chair, Noel Gordon. Current chair Kingsley Manning is due to leave the organisation on 31 May, having spent three years in the role.

Gordon  is the former managing director of the Global Banking Practice at Accenture and is currently a non-executive director at NHS England. The NHS England website says Gordon has “extensive practical experience of driving fundamental innovations in transforming industries, and of big data, analytics, mobile and digital technologies."

TechUK appoints new head of health and social care

Adrian Baker is the new head of health and Social Care at techUK, replacing Natalie Bateman, who is now director of policy and communications at IMS Maxims. Baker previously worked at the Royal College of Nursing on a range of high profile issues and as a policy advisor for the London Health Board, working in particular on the data and patient experience work led by former NHS England director of patients and information Tim Kelsey.

West Sussex gets new IM&T director

Ian Arbuthnot took up the role as director of information management and technology at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on 18 April. He joins the trust from Brighton and Sussex Universities NHS Trust, where he was director of health informatics for five years. Arbuthnot has nearly 20 years’ experience as a senior leader in the NHS.

Prior to joining Brighton, he was director of IM&T at SECAmb. A trust statement says it has “an ambitious improvement programme for our information management and technology services and we are confident [Arbuthnot’s] considerable expertise and IM&T leadership will be an invaluable asset to its successful implementation."

Bupa appoints Paul Jones

Paul Jones started a new role as director of information strategy and governance at Bupa in January 2016. Jones was chief technology officer at NHS Connecting for Health between 2005 and 2012, where he was senior responsible officer for the  NHS Spine programme and N3. He was most recently chief information officer – UK local and regional government division – at Serco.

Lois Lere takes on CIO role at Wokingham CCG

Lois Lere, previously head of digital for NHS England’s south region, started as director of operations and chief information officer at Wokingham CCG in January. She was in the NHS England role for two years and before that was deputy CIO for NHS South Central Strategic Health Authority.