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Former Whitehall mandarin to chair hospital group

Published on: 29 Jan 2025

The St George’s and Epsom and St Helier hospital trusts have worked under a group model since 2021 and today announced Sir Mark Lowcock will start as chair in March.

Sir Mark was permanent secretary for the Department for International Development between 2011 and 2017 and has subsequently held senior roles at the United Nations, the London School of Economics and a chain of academy schools in Surrey. He will replace Gillian Norton, who finishs her term in March.

The GESH group serves communities in south west London and Surrey, and its £1.5bn scheme to move emergency work from the crumbling Epsom and St Helier hospitals to a new site located between them was recently placed in wave two of the capital funding programme, meaning work is not expected to start until 2032-34.

Group chief executive Jacqueline Totterdell said: “Sir Mark joins us at a time of opportunity – we are strengthening our ties with partners such as City St George’s, University of London to drive forward research and innovation, improve our services and develop our staff. We will also be building one of the biggest specialist renal units in the country, to improve services for some of our sickest patients.”

Sir Mark’s appointment comes as specialised commissioning budgets, which form a large part of the group’s income, are being devolved down to integrated care board level, and south west London and south east London ICBs are pooling their £650m allocation.

South east London contains Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital foundation trusts, and there is some overlap between the specialist portfolios of the three organisations.

In a statement, Sir Mark said: “The NHS is facing very significant challenges, but I am committed to ensuring that we continue providing the highest possible standard of care for our patients, while also looking after our colleagues, making our group financially sustainable, embracing innovation, and working collaboratively with our partners.”