Movers and Shakers news roundup

Our latest edition of Movers and Shakes features appointments at NHS England alongside a number of trusts in areas including Blackpool, Cheshire, London and Dorset.

NHS England has added a wealth of experience and clinical expertise to its board with the appointments of Baroness Mary Watkins, Professor Sir Simon Wessely and Professor Sir Mark Walport as new non-executive directors.

They are renowned in their respective fields of nursing, mental health and life sciences and research and will take up their positions on the board from 27 January.

James Benson has been appointed as chief executive of Central London Community Healthcare Trust (CLCH). Benson has served as interim chief executive since January 2022 and takes up the substantive position following the resignation of Andrew Ridley.

Former NHS England director Bill McCarthy has taken temporary charge of Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust. He will chair the trust from now up to a period of 12 months.

The temporary appointment comes after much controversy and scandal, after then-chair Rupert Nichols announced he would be stepping down after “inexcusable behaviour” and “unacceptable care” had been exposed at the trust’s medium-secure inpatient unit, the Edenfield Centre.

The first ever Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest winner, TestCard, has appointed Elmer Monster as its new chief executive officer to manage its next phase of growth as it adopts a rapid expansion programme, both in terms of launching new products and expanding into global markets.

Monster said: “It’s a great honour to become chief executive of such an innovative company. TestCard is bringing testing into the digital age, empowering people to test at the point of care, both at home and in clinical settings and enabling access to improved patient outcomes.”

Following a “robust recruitment process”, Dorset County Hospital and Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trusts have appointed Matthew Bryant to the role of joint chief executive officer, beginning in spring of this year.

Trudie Davies will become the new chief executive of Gateshead Health Foundation Trust in March when current CEO Yvonne Ormston retires. Davies has been chief operating officer at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust since 2016, more recently taking on the post of deputy CEO.

SSP Health, the largest GP practices business in the North West, has recently made a raft of senior appointments, including Andy Scaife as the new CEO, Mary Delaney as the new chief financial officer and in the last year Amanda Carey-McDermott joined as chief transformation officer and has now been appointed managing director.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has appointed Funmi Onamusi as chief people officer. Onamusi joins from King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, where she has been director of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

IMMJ Systems, a renowned provider of electronic document management solutions (EDMS) for the NHS, has appointed experienced business leader Jon Pickering as its new CEO.

Pickering said: “In relative terms, IMMJ remains a young health tech firm, having been established in only 2015. However, backed by investment from Foresight – and with an incredible pedigree of committed talent from the healthcare sector – the business has grown quickly.

“It was apparent last year that a new commercial strategy was required – not only to drive the organisation forward to reach its full potential, but to better enable the rapid digitisation of clinical content for use at the point of care.”

Dr Roger Hall OBE has been appointed to the board of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) as a new non-executive director.

Dr Hall, who was made an OBE in 2021 in recognition of his outstanding commitment to the NHS, will join the specialist mental health and learning disability services provider for a fixed initial term of two years.

More appointments and departures can be found on Digital Health Intelligence.