Chairman appointed
The GP-led health group covering Great Yarmouth and Waveney has officially appointed a Chairman.HealthEast Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has formally appointed Dr John Stammers as their Chairman.
Dr Stammers is a practising GP at Southwold Surgery in York Road and has been acting as interim Chair for HealthEast since the organisation formed.
Having been a GP for 10 years in Southwold and six years prior to that in the RAF, Dr Stammers is passionate about health services in the Great Yarmouth and Waveney area. He said he believes a clinically-led organisation will best serve the needs of patients.
The married father-of-two added: "This is a great opportunity to start designing services around patients because GPs are closer to patients than anyone else."
HealthEast is taking over the role of commissioning NHS care - planning and paying for services - from NHS Norfolk and Waveney in April next year.
The role of Chair will run for three years from the official date of 1 April 2013. Dr Stammers will represent and speak for clinicians within the CCG.
Dr Stammers said: "Our key goal is to integrate services and start breaking down boundaries between primary and secondary care. We want people to see one NHS and remove some of those barriers between services that have historically been there."
The CCG has formed as part of a major restructure of the NHS. Dr Stammers praised the staff and Board members at HealthEast and said despite difficult times, the team as a whole was on board to help achieve the goals and improve services for patients as well as ensure clinicians feel engaged along with members of the public.
"Hopefully patients will feel engaged with how we work. We've already held an engagement event and 60 members of the public came and everyone was really enthused. It is great to see so many people feel that way and give valid input into what we are trying to create." he added.
Sheila Childerhouse, Chair at NHS Norfolk and Waveney, congratulated Dr Stammers on his appointment and said she was pleased a GP with such a wealth of experience and understanding of the area had taken the healm at the CCG.
She added: "John has been a key player in the move towards clinically-led services for patients, so it is fantastic he will be continuing his role and has already demonstrated the quality of his leadership.
"I know he has been instrumental in setting up HealthEast as an organisation but has never lost focus on ensuring the patients' voices are heard. I give him my congratulations."
published on 03/07/2012
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