Former NHSE chief made chair of two trusts

Two acute trusts in the Black Country are to share a former NHS England chief executive as their joint chair.

Sir David Nicholson is joining The Dudley Group Foundation Trust as current chair Dame Yve Buckland announced she was stepping down.

Earlier this month, Sir David – also current Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals Trust chair – revealed he was departing his role as chair of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust.

Dame Yve has been interim chair of Dudley Group since 2019 and substantive since December 2020. She is also chair of the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System.

Announcing the moves, Dudley Group CEO Diane Wake said: “We would like to thank Yve for her dedication and professional leadership during her time here in Dudley and extend her a huge heartfelt thank you.

“We are delighted to announce that Sir David Nicholson has been appointed to serve as chairman of the trust from 1 September 2022.

“We look forward to welcoming him to our trust and building on the collaboration we have already with Sandwell.”

Ms Wake said the board explored options available for recruiting a new chair and the preferred option was to share a chair with Sandwell.

Two other acute trusts in the Black Country also have a shared chair — Steve Field at Royal Wolverhampton and Walsall Healthcare. The organisations also appointed a substantive joint CEO earlier this year.

Sir David is understood to be leaving his role of chair at Worcestershire to focus on his leadership of the two trust boards in the Black Country.

He added: “I am really looking forward to joining Dudley Group as their chairman and I am keen to get the very best for the people of Dudley and Sandwell through even closer working across the two organisations.

“The trusts have already been working closely together on a number of things, such as procurement, for many years and I want to strengthen that even more.”