New Healthy Futures leader appointed

Sir Jonathan Asbridge

One of the UK’s most senior nurses and a former Patients’ Champion for A&E services has been appointed as the new Programme Director for the Healthy Futures Reconfiguration Programme.

Sir Jonathan Asbridge will took up his post today (Tuesday 1 July) for a two year period.

A registered nurse for more than 26 years, Sir Jonathan trained at the Nightingale School at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. His early career included time as a Critical Care and A&E nurse and Patient Services Manager before progressing to General Manager at Addenbrookes Hospital and Executive Nurse Director at Llandough Hospital in his native Wales.

Sir Jonathan held Chief Nurse posts both at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital and Barts and The London NHS Trust where he was Interim Chief Executive for a year.

He led the review of Adult Critical Care Nursing for England in 1999, which made a significant contribution to the publication ‘Comprehensive Critical Care’ which forms the basis of how adult critical care is provided across the country.

In 2003 he was selected as the National Clinical Director for Emergency Care responsible for assisting and encouraging staff to be responsive to the needs of patients in order to improvement patients’ experiences of emergency care across England.

As well as his work in the UK, Sir Jonathan’s reputation as a clinical change leader has seen him undertake both national and international projects in Gaza and the West Bank, Kenya, South Africa, Gibraltar and Spain.

On his new role, Sir Jonathan said: “I am committed to building trust and public confidence in the changes detailed before us in the Healthy Futures Programme.

“I think that this can be achieved only by working closely with local clinicians to ensure that community services are developed before acute services are transferred out of hospitals and that the appropriate clinical sequencing takes place when services are transferred into centres of excellence.

“This programme is all about improving both the quality of services and treatment for patients.”

Trevor Purt, Healthy Futures lead Chief Executive said: “The Healthy Futures Programme is leading the way when it comes to improving the standard of care for patients. The appointment of Sir Jonathan Asbridge will help enforce the process of change that was put into place following extensive consultation to ensure that the promises made become a reality.”

Sir Jonathan, who was born and raised in Cardiff, received a Knighthood in 2006 for services to the NHS and nursing. He was the first male nurse ever to receive such an honour.