Prof Sir Bruce Keogh interim DH IT director general

22 Apr 2008

Sir Professor Keogh, the Department of Health's medical director, is to become the department’s interim director general of informatics.

He will take over from Matthew Swindells, the current DH director general of informatics, who has announced earlier this month he is to join consultants Tribal Group at the end of his current secondment.

Swindells, who has been responsible for undertaking a wide-ranging role of NHS informatics due for publication this summer, has been on secondment with the DH since November 2007.

The DH said in a statement that Prof. Sir Bruce Keogh “has taken an active role in the national informatics work stream supporting the Lord Darzi Next Steps Review”.

Accepting the interim role Prof. Sir Bruce said: “As the first NHS Medical Director, my clear priorities are to drive improvements in clinical quality and safety in the services we provide to our patients.”

Gordon Hextall will support Prof. Sir Bruce as interim Director of Informatics in addition to his current role as interim Director of Programme Delivery with NHS Connecting for Health. The DH said this would ensure “the continuity in the management of the NHS National Programme for IT and the implementation of the recommendations of the informatics review recommendations”.

Reader's Comments

Short-termism

22 Apr 08 22:22

I've lost count of the number of times the word "interim" appears in this piece.

Is there anyone up there with a substantive role???

When was the Darzi report completed?

maryhawking@tigers.demon.co.uk

23 Apr 08 21:55

"he DH said in a statement that Prof. Sir Bruce Keogh “has taken an active role in the national informatics work stream supporting the Lord Darzi Next Steps Review”." My understanding was that the Darzi review was due to be published in June - yet the various SHAs are launching their Visions for the next 10 years in May. Now it seems that there is a national informatics work stream supporting Lord Darzi's review - which hasn't been completed yet. Am I alone in feeling confused?

Role and scope and longevity - DG

jean@hcjean.demon.co.uk

25 Apr 08 10:31

I welcome the continuity provided by a speedy identification of the next post holder but am confused as to the title. 'Informatics' (as reported here by eHI) covers the necessary breadth of the community and agenda that has to be faced. However on the (publically available) Position Specification it states DG Chief Information Officer (DH) with four reports - Programme and Service Delivery, Information Centre, Information Services and Service Inplementation -- however it does too state that the 'DG Chief Information Office is accountable to the Chief Information Officer for managing the delivery of IT Programmes' .... so I am not quite sure which relates to which. Incidentally, there are two 'Interim's in that description of the Informatics Directorate so I am hopeful that momentum and continuity will prevail!