Ex-NHSE board member joins major private provider

A former NHS England board member has been appointed vice chair of private provider Spire Healthcare.

The company has announced Sir David Sloman, NHSE’s former chief operating officer, will join its board in May in a non-executive capacity.

He will also chair its clinical governance and safety committee, replacing Professor Dame Janet Husband, who has stepped down after 10 years.

Before being appointed NHSE’s COO, Sir David was regional director for London, and previously led the Royal Free London Foundation Trust, a £1.5bn turnover acute provider group in north central London.

He joined the NHS management training scheme in 1984 and went on to hold several senior positions prior to the Royal Free, including as CEO of the Whittington Hospital Foundation Trust and of the former primary care trust, NHS Haringey.

He was a key member of the NHSE board during a large part of the pandemic, having joined as COO in 2021, and was ranked fourth on the HSJ 100, which lists the most influential people in health in England, in 2022.

The appointment adds to the former NHS leader’s broad portfolio of roles he has taken on since stepping down as COO in September 2023.

Sir David is a board member of Health Data Research UK; a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine; a senior fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a trustee of the Royal College of Radiologists.

He is also a non-executive director of AXA UK and Ireland; took on a role with virtual wards firm Doccla in September 2023; and joined Newmark Strategy as a “senior associate” in November of that year.

Spire chair Sir Ian Cheshire said he was “delighted” by the appointment of Sir David, who would bring a “breadth of expertise and experience” to the company.