Management Toolkit

Two NHS IT leaders appointed

Kablenet.com

Published: 07 Aug 2008 16:13 BST

Christine Connelly and Martin Bellamy have been appointed as prime figures in England's healthcare IT programme.

The Department of Health (DoH) said Connelly will be the first chief information officer for health. She will lead the work on the department's overall information strategy and in integrating leadership across the NHS and associated bodies.

She has recently worked as an independent consultant and was previously chief information officer for Cadbury Schweppes. Before that, Connelly worked in a number of roles at BP.

Bellamy will be the director of programme and system delivery, leading Connecting for Health (CfH), the agency in charge of the NHS National Programme for IT.

Since 2003, he has worked for the Department for Work and Pensions, mainly as chief information officer of the Pension Service. Before that, he was a partner at KPMG Consulting.

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The DoH said the appointments follow the strategic refocusing of IT leadership as part of the Health Informatics Review.

NHS chief executive David Nicholson said: "The creation of these two roles enhances both the strategic management of information in the health and social-care system and the delivery of NHS Connecting for Health."

Connelly and Bellamy are due to take up their positions on 22 September, 2008. Gordon Hextall is expected to continue in his role as chief operating officer at CfH.