New chair for major hospital trust

Baroness Neuberger will become chair in February. She succeeds Lord Prior, who left last year to take up the chair’s role at NHS England, having served less than a year at the trust.

Dame Julia Neuberger is a former Liberal Democrat peer, although she resigned the whip in 2011. In 2013, she chaired a review of the Liverpool Care Pathway on palliative care.

Diarmid Ogilvy, stakeholder governor and chair of the trust’s appointment panel, said: “Julia’s professional experience, personal warmth, intellect and passion for improving health and social care are exceptional. Her appointment will serve our patients, staff, volunteers, academic partners and the local and wider health communities well in the future.”

In a statement, Baroness Neuberger said: “I am absolutely delighted to be joining UCLH as the new chair. I chaired the old community NHS trust in the 1990s and loved it, and I grew up locally and live nearby.

“UCLH is a group of world class hospitals, doing world class research, and we can be proud of all its achievements, but it also has a local heart, and plays an important role in the area – it is a great honour to become part of all it does.”