NHS England and NHS Improvement has appointed Sir James Mackey, Chief Executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, to advise on elective recovery. He will spend two days a week supporting the national team to find new ways to address the elective backlog. He previously led NHS Improvement.
Commenting on his appointment, Sir James Mackey, says: “NHS staff have done a great job of dealing with COVID and now face a daunting task as we seek to help patients who have put off seeking help or had care disrupted.
“However, the NHS COVID vaccination programme, the biggest and most successful in our history, shows that the health service can mobilise together to tackle some of the biggest challenges when the investment is available to do so.
“I look forward to working with colleagues at NHS England and NHS Improvement to ensure this additional investment to tackle elective backlogs is utilised to help as many patients as possible.”
NHS England and NHS Improvement have already put £160 million into a series of ‘accelerator’ sites trialling new ways of delivering care and making investment go further.
These have included a high-volume cataract service, one-stop testing facilities, greater access to specialist advice for GPs and pop-up clinics so patients can be seen and discharged closer to home.
