HSJ’s round-up to get you up to speed in 2017

Arise, Sir Davids

Happy new year!

We start 2017 with news that the Queen is continuing an NHS tradition – people called David getting knighted.

Joining the club that includes Davids Dalton, Nicholson and Fish are Care Quality Commission chief executive David Behan and Royal Free London Foundation Trust boss David Sloman. Professor Nick Black from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is also knighted, for services to healthcare research.

Becoming dames are Professor Caroline Leigh Watkins from University of Central Lancashire for services to nursing and older people’s care, and Professor Elizabeth Anionwu for services to nursing and the Mary Seacole statue appeal.

UCLPartners chair Sir Cyril Chantler has had his title upgraded to a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, for services to leadership in healthcare.

Congratulations to them and the many others involved in health and care heading to Buckingham Palace, including Royal College of Nursing president Cecilia Anim (CBE), former NHS Blood and Transplant director Lorna Williamson (OBE), and trust chairs Kenneth Hoskisson and Philip Large (MBEs).

New year, new job

The chief executive of a struggling hospital trust is being seconded to NHS Improvement to advise on improving emergency care.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole FT’s chief executive Karen Jackson will spend six months advising the regulator’s leadership team on its emergency care improvement programme, which offers support to urgent and emergency care systems under the most pressure.

She says the move “is an exciting opportunity for me to help shape a crucial piece of work that will have a positive impact on the quality of emergency care across the nation and to bring some new ideas back to the trust”.

Ms Jackson is not the first trust chief executive to take a secondment at NHS Improvement.

Last April, St George’s University Hospitals FT’s chief executive Miles Scott stepped down to take up a new role at NHSI. The move followed high profile financial problems at the trust and arrival of new interim chair.

Ms Jackson, who has led Northern Lincolnshire and Goole since 2010, leaves the trust two months after it experienced a cyber attack which led to 2,800 appointments being cancelled as the trust shut down computer systems.

It was the third time in less than a year that outpatient appointments have caused concerns for the trust, with two serious incidents being declared over 12 months due to overdue follow-up appointments.