Management Toolkit

DoH: Granger has stepped down from NHS

Kablenet.com

Published: 08 Feb 2008 09:10 GMT

The Department of Health has confirmed that Richard Granger has left his post as director general of the NHS National Programme for IT.

This follows a period in which there has been uncertainty about Granger's continued role in the programme. He had announced in July that he would leave by the end of 2007, but this had not been confirmed and there had been reports of his involvement into this year.

The DoH issued a statement saying that his last day of service was 31 January 2008.

Hugh Taylor, permanent secretary of the DoH, sung Granger's praises and said it is now revising the governance structure for handling informatics in the department. There will be no direct replacement for Granger, but the DoH will begin the process of filling two new positions over the next two weeks.

The first is a chief information officer for health, who will "focus on the delivering our overall IT vision". Matthew Swindells, currently on secondment from the NHS, will act as the interim chief information officer.

The second is a director of IT programme and system delivery, who will focus on managing NHS Connecting for Health and enhancing partnerships in the NHS. Gordon Hextall, who has been chief operating officer in CfH over the last four years, will act as the interim director.