Kelsey deputies announced by NHS CB

The NHS Commissioning Board has announced the appointments of Alex Abbot as its chief technology officer and Giles Wilmore as director of patient and public voice.

Tim Kelsey, the NHS CB’s national director for patients and information, welcomed the pair to the organisation through his Twitter account. He said Abbot would be “the guy who will make online health real.”

Abbott is presently director of infrastructure at NHS Connecting for Health and has been involved with the organisation since 2005, having joined as national assurance manager.

Paul Jones remains head of the Technology Office at the Department of Health.

Wilmore has been the DH’s director of quality framework and QIPP, as part of which he was responsible for writing the recent NHS information strategy, ‘The Power of Information’.

Before joining the DH, Wilmore had a career as a history teacher. His early career in the department included working as a ministerial private secretary.

More recently he has been head of the NHS Foundation Trust Unit, director of system management and regulation, and director of informatics policy and planning.

Kelsey's appointment in May completed the team of national directors at the NHS CB.

The rest of the team includes: Jane Cummings, chief nursing officer; Ian Dalton, chief operating officer; Jo-Anne Wass, chief of staff; Barbara Hakin, director of commissioning development; Paul Baumann, director of finance; Jim Easton, director of transformation; Bill McCarthy, director of policy, corporate development and partnership; and Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director.

Easton tweeted yesterday that he and Dalton are in the process of interviewing for other NHS CB posts.

Anne-Wass told a NHS CB meeting last week that “47 very senior managers” have been appointed so far and recruitment “continues apace”, with the majority of posts coming out this September.

At the moment, the NHS CB is operating as a special health authority. Board appointments will transfer to the NHS Commissioning Board once it is established as an executive non-departmental public body in October 2012.