• First set of judges announced for 2016 HSJ Awards
  • Includes UK’s leading hospital chief executive and most high profile patient campaigner
  • Awards deadline is Friday June 10

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence chair Professor David Haslam, Salford Royal chief executive Sir David Dalton and NHS England director for new models of care Samantha Jones have all been confirmed as judges for this year’s HSJ Awards.

The 35th HSJ Awards are the country’s largest celebration of excellence in NHS care. The deadline for entries is this Friday, June 10.

Other confirmed judges include NHS England director of patient safety Dr Mike Durkin, Lord Ara Darzi, NHS England chair Sir Malcolm Grant and NHS Clinical Commissioners co-chair Dr Amanda Doyle.

NHS trust chief executives on the judges list include Imperial’s Tracey Batten, Cheshire and Wirrall’s Sheena Cumiskey and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh’s Andrew Foster.

All HSJ awards categories will have a patient representative. These include Mid Staffs campaigner Julie Bailey and National Coproduction Advisory Group Sally Percival.

Other judges will be announced very soon.

The HSJ Awards will be judged over the summer and presented in November.