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Who's who in Primary Care?
Updated: Dec 20, 2022
If you are a new Primary Care Network (PCN) Manager, you may have heard your colleagues referring to high profile individuals, but you may not be entirely sure of what they do and their role in the system.
This list does not include every Director and prominent leader in primary care, but here is my list of key individuals you should probably be aware of.
In this blog, I will introduce you to the following:
Dr Kiren Collison @KirenCollison
GP and Interim Medical Director for Primary Care NHS England
Dr Farah Jameel @DrFJameel
Chair of the BMA General Practitioners Committee in England
Dr Ursula Montgomery @DrUrsulaM
GP and Interim Director of Primary Care at NHS England
Matthew Taylor @FRSAMatthew
Matthew is the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation
Ruth Rankine @rankine
Ruth is the Director of Primary Care at the NHS Confederation
Dr Claire Fuller
Chief Executive-designate Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System and GP
Dr Bola Owolabi @BolaOwolabi8
Director of Health Inequalities at NHS England and NHS Improvement
Ben Gowland @BenXGowland
Director at Ockham Healthcare and Host of the General Practice Podcast
Dr Nicole Atkinson @NicoleSAtkinson
Medical Advisor for Primary Care at the NHS Confederation
Amanda Pritchard
NHS Chief Executive of NHS England
Steve Barclay
Steve Barclay is the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care appointed on 5th July 2022 and then reappointed on 25th October 2022.
Let's jump in!
Dr Kiren Collison
Dr Kiren Collison is a GP and Interim Medical Director for Primary Care, NHS England
She is also chair of the NHS long COVID taskforce.
Dr Kiren's role involves working with government and partners to agree on policy priorities for Primary Care, including contractual and funding implications, designing how to deliver this then and most importantly, ensuring the profession's voice and the system is recognised.
Dr Farah Jameel
Dr Farah Jameel is a practising GP in Camden and the 1st woman to be elected as Chair of the BMA General Practitioners Committee in England.
Farah was previously a council member at the Medical Women’s Federation, deputy chair of the BMA’s Equality and Inclusion Committee and a national executive member of the British International Doctor’s Association.
Farah is also the former Chair of the South Thames Regional Junior Doctors Committee in 2012 and was a member of the British Medical Association’s UK Junior Doctors Committee between 2010 to 2014. She has been involved in medical politics since 2009.
Dr Ursula Montgomery
Dr Ursula Montgomery is a GP and Interim Director of Primary Care at NHS England and Improvement. Before joining NHS England, she was Clinical Chair of East Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning group.
Ursula has held a range of positions within healthcare, including Associate Medical Director at University Hospitals of Leicester, a GP partner in Leicestershire and chair of Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Community board.
Matthew Taylor
Matthew is the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation
Matthew Taylor was Chief Executive of the RSA from 2006 to 2021. He wrote several blogs on topics ranging from policy, politics, public service reform and cultural theory and is also an author.
Before becoming Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew was the CEO of the RSA, Chief Adviser on Political Strategy to the Prime Minister and was the Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Matthew joined the NHS Confederation as the organisation launched a new strategy to coincide with the most important set of reforms to the NHS in a decade, which will see legislative changes that underpin moves to integrate care in the English NHS.
“As the only membership body for the whole healthcare system, they bring together, support and speak for leaders and organisations across the sector, connecting different parts of the system to share learning and to respond to shared challenges.
Ruth Rankine
Ruth is the Director of Primary Care at the NHS Confederation, leading the PCN Network and Primary Care Federation Network.
Before joining the NHS Confederation, Ruth was deputy chief inspector of general practice at the Care Quality Commission.
During her time at CQC, Ruth led the regulation of general practice, set up the first regulatory programme for online providers and established an inspection programme for military health services.
Ruth is accessible, straight talking and deeply committed to amplifying the voice of Primary Care.
Dr Clare Fuller
Dr Claire Fuller is the Chief Executive-designate Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System and GP on integrated primary care and convenor of the Fuller Stocktake.
Dr Claire Fuller’s ‘stocktake’ identify’s the next steps for the role of general practice within new Integrated Care Systems.
A key objective of the stocktake was to hear as wide a range of views as possible, from across the country, about how to seize this opportunity to ensure integrated primary care is at the heart of ICSs.
Their report can be found here.
Ben Gowland
Ben is a former contributor to the Health Service Journal ( HSJ) and Chief Executive of a Clinical Commissioning Group. In 2015, Ben established Ockham Health Care to make the system more accessible, more productive and fulfilling for those who work in it, and easier to understand and more responsive to those who need it.
His weekly blogs and General Practice Podcast, where he shares his thoughts and best practices regarding primary care networks.
His content often goes viral, demonstrating that Ben is hugely respected in this space.
Dr Bola Owolabi
Bola is Director of Health Inequalities at NHS England and NHS Improvement, and she works as a General Practitioner in the Midlands.
Bola has particular interests in reducing health inequalities through Integrated Care Models, Service Transformation and using data & insights for Quality Improvement.
Bola has held various leadership roles at local, system and national levels. She was, until recently, National Specialty Advisor for Older People and Integrated Person Centred-Care at NHS England and Improvement, where she led the Anticipatory Care Workstream of the National Ageing Well Programme.
She has worked with teams across NHS England/Improvement and the Department of Health and Social Care as part of the Covid 19 Pandemic response.
Some of Bola's published work can be found here.
Regardless of where you work in the system, reducing healthcare inequalities is everyone's responsibility.
Dr Nicole Atkinson
Nicole is a GP Partner, a Clinical Lead in South Notts Place and the NHS Confederation Primary Care Medical Advisor. Nicole has also been a CCG Chair and Primary Care Network Clinical Director. In her spare time, she likes to run 250 - mile races. Yes! You read that correctly, 250 miles.
Nicole’s role will support the effective development of primary care as part of England's wider health and care system.
Amanda Pritchard
At the top of the tree, we have Amanda Pritchard NHS Chief Executive of NHS England.
Amanda is the first woman in the health service’s history to hold the post.
As NHS chief executive, she will be responsible for an annual budget of more than £130 billion while ensuring that everyone in the country receives high-quality care.
Steve Barclay
Steve Barclay was named the new Health Secretary on 5th July 2022
He was previously appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office between 15 September 2021 and July 2022.
He was previously Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 13 February 2020 to 15 September 2021 and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 16 November 2018 to 31 January 2020, and Minister of State for the Department of Health and Social Care from January to November 2018. Steve was also Economic Secretary to the Treasury from June 2017 to January 2018.
He served as a Government Whip (Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury) from July 2016 to June 2017. He was elected Conservative MP for North East Cambridgeshire in May 2010
The overall aim
These leaders, among many others, are working together to achieve a new integrated care system where primary care has a strong and equal voice.
Check out the following video by the King's Fund, which presents collectively what we will all be working towards.
I hope this helps!
DISCLAIMER: We endeavour to keep our blogs up to date and the information presented reflects our knowledge at the time of publishing
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