NHS Birmingham and Solihull has announced the appointment of two new members of staff, with a new chief delivery officer and substantive chair joining the team.
Faith Button has been appointed as chief delivery officer, joining Birmingham and Solihull from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where she has held a number of roles including deputy chief operating officer, chief operating office and interim chief executive.
The ICB states that the chief delivery officer role “reflects a wide range of duties including leading on our system’s work to improve waiting times in urgent and emergency and elective care, developing key annual operational plans including the system winter plan as well as developing and leading the system digital strategy.”
David Melbourne, chief executive, says: “The next year will be critical for our system as we build on progress tackling delivery challenges in areas like long waits and access to urgent and emergency care. I know colleagues will benefit greatly from the wealth of delivery, senior leadership and transformation experience that Faith will undoubtedly bring to the role.”
Meanwhile, Patrick Vernon OBE has been appointed as substantive chair of the ICB, having spent the last year as interim chair.
Patrick was previously the non-executive director of Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and Healthwatch England. In addition to his role at the ICB, he is also the chair of the Walsall Together Partnership Board, “working to create happier partnership working in the locality.”
Patrick comments: “I’m looking forward to continuing to lead our integrated care board and integrated care partnership through the next stage of our work. Critical throughout will be maintaining our focus on improving services for patients, creating a better system to work in for our staff and pushing on with work to tackle long standing health inequalities.”
We previously covered news of 30 “innovative” projects launched across Birmingham and Solihull, with the ICS awarding small grants totalling £300,000 for projects delivered by voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector organisations.