Movers and Shakers news roundup

March’s roundup of Movers and Shakers features an appointments at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust as well as eConsult and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) has appointed Dr William Lumb as its new chief clinical information officer (CCIO) and Janet Manning as its chief nursing information officer (CNIO).

Dr Lumb has worked as clinical director of the integrated community services care group at the trust for the last four years and he has worked in Morecambe Bay since 2004. He is due to take up his new post as CCIO on Friday 1 April.

While Janet has worked for the trust since 1991 and, in her most recent role as patient safety matron; she has played a key role in the improvement of quality of care and safety of services.

Foluke Ajayi has been appointed as director of strategic transformation and locality director at Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership. She will replace Brendan Brown at Airedale Foundation Trust in the Spring 2022.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has appointed Dr Sean O’Kelly as the new chief inspector of hospitals.

Dr O’Kelly is currently medical director and chief clinical information officer (CCIO) for NHS England and Improvement East of England and will take over from Ted Baker in Spring 2022.

His previous roles have included associate clinical professor and director of paediatric cardiac anaesthesia at the University of Michigan, associate medical director at the Department of Health and Social Care and non-executive director at Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Dr O’Kelly said: “I’m thrilled to be taking on the role of chief inspector of hospitals and am looking forward to building on the great work that Ted has progressed helping providers to drive improvement and ensure that people receive consistently good, safe care.

“These are exceptionally challenging times and I’m committed to working with CQC colleagues, providers and other partners to support greater collaboration between services and across local systems as we strive to make our healthcare system as good as it can possibly be.”

eConsult has appointed Jane Hurst as its chief financial officer.

Hurst joins the company – which provides digital triage systems for NHS GPs, A&E and outpatient clinicians – from KPMG where she spent seven years supporting NHS organisations improving their financial positions and managing key projects. In her role at KPMG, she regularly worked with both the trust and the regulator to evaluate business operations and change pricing models.

At eConsult, Hurst will be responsible for overseeing both operational and strategic finances supporting eConsult continue its impressive growth.

She said: “eConsult operates in an incredibly exciting and purpose-led sector. I’ve always had a passion for healthcare and so joining eConsult gives me the opportunity to apply my technical skills to an organisation whose vision I believe in. eConsult has experienced high-levels of growth in a very short space of time. As the company continues to scale at speed, it is my mission to support the team with that growth”.

Co-founder and CEO of eConsult, Dr Murray Ellender, added: “For some time now, we’ve been outsourcing our finances. To have Jane join the business and manage our finances internally will be a real game-changer. She’ll be working closely with myself and Chief Strategic Officer Dr Mark Harmon to support us in the strategic direction of the business as we continue to grow into A&E and outpatient departments across the UK. This is an exciting new chapter for eConsult”.

Robert Miller has been appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) at Wellbeing Software.

Miller began his new role on March 7 and joins the company from Allscripts, where he was responsible for commercial operations across all non-US businesses.

He said: “I am honoured to be given the opportunity to lead Wellbeing Software through the next exciting phase of its fast-paced development. The company has earnt a solid reputation for delivering a connected suite of enterprise health software to NHS trusts across the UK and the HSE in Ireland.

“I am looking forward to working with the innovative team at Wellbeing, continuing to provide the highest quality service for our customers and identifying and executing new growth opportunities.”

Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) has confirmed that its finance and commercial director, Jack Griffin, will take over as acting chief executive following recent announcement that Matt James (PHIN’s founding chief executive) was stepping down.

Griffin will start his interim role on 1 April and an executive recruitment agency has been appointed to lead the search for a permanent chief executive.

He said: “It has been a pleasure working with Matt and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to take over the reins on an interim basis until a successor has been appointed.”

PHIN’s chair, Jayne Scott, added:  “I want to say a huge thank you to Matt for his vision and leadership over the last 10 years. He leaves PHIN in a great place.

“I am delighted Jack has agreed to take over the role during the interim period and I have every confidence that he will continue to move PHIN forward, working together with all our stakeholders.

“We have started the recruitment process for Matt’s successor.”

Nathan Brown has joined AI company Healx as director of digital chemistry.

Brown joins the company from BenevolentAI, where he led the cheminformatics team and was responsible for the research and development of new and effective approaches for computational drug design.

The newly created role of director of digital chemistry aims to build on Healx’s ambition to create a truly AI-led approach to drug discovery.