NHS England and NHS Improvement have today announced that Dr Simon Eccles has been appointed as the new Chief Clinical Information Officer for Health and Care to spearhead NHS use of technology and data to drive improvements in patient care.
Dr Eccles is a practicing hospital consultant in Emergency Medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and will succeed Professor Keith McNeil. He is also Clinical Director for Emergency Care at NHS England, London, and holds a number of senior roles nationally including as senior responsible owner for NHS Mail and Interoperability.
Dr Eccles said: “Digital Health is a fast paced arena, and we must ensure parties work together to drive improvements for patients, who will remain my focus as I move from Hospital work to driving the NHS IT agenda.
“This is a really exciting time to be working on digital transformation and more so in the NHS with many important changes on the horizon.”
“I look forward to working with all the teams across the Department of Health, NHS England, NHS Improvement and NHS Digital as we use data and digital technology to improve patient care and the efficiency of its delivery.”
Reporting to Matthew Swindells, the National Director for Operations and Information, the appointment was made following open competition by a Panel including Board members from NHS England, NHS Improvement, NHS Digital and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Matthew Swindells, national director of operations and information at NHS England, said: “Simon was a fantastic candidate in a very strong field and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of the IT agenda and the challenges being faced, together with great clinical experience from the frontline as an emergency medicine consultant.”
