Movers and shakers news round-up

The latest roundup of movers and shakers in the health IT industry includes a number of new faces at NHS Digital, hospital trusts and CCGs.

NHS Digital has welcomed three new non-executive directors into the fold.

John Noble, Deborah Oakley and Balram Veliath joined the NHS Digital board on 1 July 2018 and will help “shape the governance of the organisation”.

Noble comes to NHS Digital following his retirement from the security services, where he led on enhancing the UK’s cyber resilience infrastructure.

Oakley is a long-standing member of the board of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and has also chaired the biological medicines technical committee at the Health Protection Agency, as well as the audit committee of Camden CCG.

Veliath, meanwhile, is currently director of quality, risk and assurance at the BBC, a role which includes oversight of ethics, culture, conduct and transparency.

Noel Gordon, chair of NHS Digital, said: “I am absolutely delighted to welcome John, Deborah and Balram to our board at NHS Digital.

“They bring with them huge depths of expertise and impressive track records in their fields which will help us continue to build on the strength, diversity and competence around our board table.”

David Highton has joined consultancy firm Servita as strategic health advisor.

Highton is currently chair of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust and formerly served as CEO of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust and the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.

He will be tasked with bringing a greater understanding of NHS challenges pressures to Servita’s delivery team, and ensuring the firm’s consultancy services “offer genuine value for money to the NHS and health sectors internationally”.

Ryan Tabberner, chief executive of Servita – which offers IT outsourcing among its services – commented: “David has real on-the-ground knowledge of working to government policies, accessing funding streams, managing budgets and also procuring and leading major IT-enabled transformations from the client side. For example, in recent years David was instrumental and accountable at the highest levels for the roll out of a class leading electronic patient record (EPR) system.”

Commenting on his appointment, Highton said: “Servita already understands the healthcare market, so my role will be to provide extra ‘insider knowledge’ in the healthcare space; to assist Servita in assessing customer needs; to help Servita refine the company’s healthcare offering, and to put even more experience into the delivery team.”

Francis White has been appointed Olympus’ new director of medical and surgical business for the UK and Ireland.

White, an NHS Innovation Fellow, joins Olympus from his leadership position at ECG hardware and software maker AliveCor.

He was also held senior positions at Smith & Nephew Endoscopy and Medtronic.

On his new role, White said: “I can’t wait to get started and engage with our customers to further develop partnerships and pioneer advancements to improve patient care.”

Pat Long has been made the new interim deputy director of operations at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

Long will be charged with leading the delivery of mental health services across the county, alonsgide the trust’s director of operations, Peter Devlin.

A trained nurse, Long began her career at Harefield and Mount Vernon Hospitals in Middlesex, specialising in coronary care and orthopaedics, and spent some time working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn.

Since then, she has gained extensive mental health experience after working with several different charities.

Long commented: “I am already proud to be part of NSFT. There are some amazing things taking place at the trust and things will become even more exciting as we work towards achieving further improvements.”

As previously reported by Digital Health, the trust has been rolling out an EPR and electronic prescribing.

Finally, Norfolk and South Norfolk CCGs have appointed Frank Sims as their new joint chief officer.

Sim took up his new role on 23 July, having previously served as deputy chief executive at Isle of Wight NHS Trust.

Said Sims: ”I am delighted and privileged to join the great team and I’m really looking forward to working with all our members and partners to drive improvements for the people we serve.”